
SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT 



/ 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 




BY 



CHARLES J. C. BENNETT, A. M. 



SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 

FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

IN THE 

Faculty of Philosophy 
Columbia University 



New York 
1905 



■3 'V 



CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTION 

Page 
The Meaning of the Doctrine of Formal Discipline ... 7 

The Extent of Belief in It and Practice According to It - - 8 

PART I. EVIDENCE FROM ANALYTIC PSYCHOLOGY 

Analysis of the Doctrine 13 

Analysis of the "Common Element" 23 

PART II. EVIDENCE FROM EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 

Empirical Studies of Formal Discipline 30 

New Experimental Data 45 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 



Introduction 



Meaning of the Doctrine. Arising sometimes out of a prion 
philosophy, and at other times out of naive observations on 
actual life, there has for a long time existed the notion that 
mental power was a sort of entity which could be turned in any 
direction, to the solution of any problem. This is indicated by 
such phrases as, "He is a man of ability," or, "He has had 
good mental training," or, "He was well disciplined in col- 
lege," or "He has great intellectual power," or "He is a man 
of deep insight," or "unusual foresight." In all these classes 
there is no specification of the lines in which these abilities are 
sharp or effective, no peculiar specification being considered in 
the general statement. The same is commonly heard in describ- 
ing people in other realms of expression, as, "He is a man of 
fine feeling," or "He is very sensitive," or "He is very appre- 
ciative or full of sentiment;" or still again in another general 
field, "He is a man of strong will," or "of great force." 

From these more general aflfirmations concerning human 
character, there are numerous gradations toward the specific. 
For example, "He is a good reasoner," "an acute thinker,'' "a 
shrewd observer," or "He is a lover of the beautiful," or "is 
fond of history,'' or "has great courage.'' In all these it will 
be noticed that there is no particular line in which these capaci- 
ties are said to be manifested. The question is not put : In 
what subjects is he an acute thinker, or of what sort of beauti. 
ful thing is he a lover, or in what phases of life is he courage- 
ous, e. g., in fighting, or in facing an audience or a woman; or 
of what sort of history is he fond, or in what lines is he a good 
observer. Again the question may be more narrowly put : He 
is a good mechanic, but with what tools? She is a good 
musician, but on what instrument.'' She is a good painter, but 



8 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

with what — water color, oil, or pastel? Now these narrow 
questions are not what the advocate of formal disc ipline puts. 
He takes the larger words as exponential of character, like 
"well-trained mind," and holds that the particular actions are 
simply the outcome in certain directions of that general mental 
attitude. 

And the result on the side of education, both in theory 
and practice, is apparent. Any subject which exercises the stu- 
dent is as good as any other, or, if there is any difference, it is 
one of degree. The remoteness of the subject from the life 
which the student is to follow is of no importance, whether this 
remoteness relates to the subject matter, the method of getting 
that subject matter,or the accomplishment effected by the study. 
Though one were to be a Christian in adult life in morals and 
religion, the study of pagan literature was as generally helpful 
in that direction as the study of Jewish literature, for after all it 
gave the general things called "culture,'' "outlook." The 
same was held to be true of history, so that even yet modern 
history occupies a very subordinate place, if any at all, inmost 
of the high schools, which are thinking more especially of the 
mental development of the student as opposed to the college 
which has more nearly in mind the nearness of practical life. 
Indeed, the great argument for the classics, for geometry, for 
algebra, in the older courses, and later for the introduction of 
botany, physics and astronomy, and still later for drawing, 
nature study and manual training, has been in more or less 
explicit form the dogma of formal discipline, i. e., that each of 
these are generally helpful to the mind as such, or, one grade 
removed from this, are productive of ready memory, keen per- 
ception, accurate reason, lively imagination. Such words or 
phrases as "intellectual power," "moral training," "mental 
force, ""fibre," "taste," "character," "disposition" are the ends 
of school training. 

Extent of Belief in and Practice According to the Doctrine. The 
Greeks held in theory, as well as in practice, to the theory of 
general training. Plato conceived of a kind of dance which 
would not only bring out all the desirable characteristics of the 
body, but likewise those of the mind. Their whole training 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 9 

would be largely of the character called culture by us today 
However, the life oi the Greek referred to by Flato, as by 
Aristotle, was that of one of the upper classes only, who was sup- 
ported by slaves, and was thus allowed to disport himself in an 
easy and untechnical way in politics or art, or conversations 
about everything under the sun. Thus there was a closer unity 
between the matter and method of the school and of after life 
than at first appears. But with the appearance of Scholasti. 
cism, formal discipline started on a career of centuries. All one 
needed was a training in logic, in intellectual gymnastics, and 
from this source of knowledge, the inner consciousness, could be 
spun out all good and worthy things. This notion fixed logic in 
the course for all these passing years. Latin and the classics 
generally were studied in the middle ages for the knowledge 
they contained, and that only as mentioned above; but as the 
other tongues developed literatures, they were continued partly 
by the force of traditional inertia, and partly on account of their 
supposed disciplinary value. Coming on to our own day, the 
advocates of even such seemingly practical subjects as manual 
training, including cooking, sewing, and gardening, either in 
deference to the customary justification of school subjects, or 
to some really supposed logical connection, take special pains 
to say that these things are not introduced for their practical 
value ; far from it, they are simply to achieve more effectively 
than did the old list those points of general culture, and the 
whetting up of the so-called faculties, as memory, imagina. 
tion, reason, etc. The advocates of nature study say that it 
helps to better observation, in respect to both the number of 
things observed and the acuteness of the process. Their favorite 
phrase is, "It trains in observation," and their general position 
is that it does not make much, if any, difference what is 
observed, so long as that mental function is performed. With 
some view to the study of the law in my earlier days, I was 
repeatedly advised to study mathematics that my mind might 
be trained into accurate, well balanced, logical and exhaustive 
methods. On the other side, law is often studied in general 
courses for its cross effects in avenues in no ways legal. (^) 

^Leland Stanford, Jr., University lately opposed an Act before the Cal- 
ifornia Legislature to free her graduates in law from the bar examinations 
on the ground that her purpose was not directly to prepare lawyers. 



,0 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

This position on formal discipline is clearly revealed in all that 
very large class of people in this country who send their chil- 
dren to private military schools, which are in no sense prepara- 
tory to West Point. These parents are avowedly not thinking 
of their sons becoming warriors, and it is often the very boys 
who are sent to these schools who are in no special mood for 
soldierly service and care little for the drills which they are 
compelled to undergo. But the "patent declarations of these 
schools are that the students learn respect for law, obedience, 
promptness, attention to duty and to details, courage, patriot- 
ism, and all the host of things which skill in precise conformity 
to law and authority bring. The same principle lies at the base 
of much of the militarism of the public'schools in their march- 
ing here and there, keeping in line, "heads up, eyes to the 
front,'' the slipping, sliding and ^starting at "one, two, three," 
etc., ad infinitum. So also in many institutions for orphans and 
the like, in which the lights go out at this time, rising bells 
ring at another, everything working according to machinery 
and mathematics. All this is done not for the reason or even 
expectation that the children will do these same things in after 
life; for the leaders of these schools show by their own actions, 
as well as by confession, that these are not the ways of life. 
But such training teaches the children to do the things they are 
not to do in the right way, at the right time, etc. Indeed, 
there are two implicit articles in this creed: first, that the 
child will learn to do the right thing — I mean here the right act, 
e. g.y going out of a theater properly, — by not doing that thing, 
but something else; second, that the child will be best pre- 
pared for certain things not only by not doing those things, but 
indeed by doing nothing about them or at all related to them. 
That is, by this life of negation, greater capacity will be 
acquired for positive action later on. I wish to repeat forj 
emphasis that whatever good or evil exists in the convents, 
cloistral schools, and all others with walls about them, is a 
direct outcome of the notion or doctrine of formal discipline, 
stated from its negative side. It clearly implies that the build- 
ing up of the organism in one way— for^living things keep 
changing and growing —will be the most effective preparation 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE n 

for actions depending on habits in no way comparable to those 
earlier formed. 

A later form of the doctrine of formal discipline, approved 
in high circles, is in connection with the new system of elec- 
tives in our colleges and universities. The administrators of 
these institutions disavow any connection with professional 
schools or trade schools as such, holding that it does not make 
much difference what the student takes so that he takes it well ; 
/. e.y it makes no difference what his business or calling after he 
leaves the university will be, a thorough course in one thing 
being about as good as another. There is apparently the belief 
that this one elected subject, rightly pursued, will give the 
student something which will carry over into any or all fields 
whatsoever. 

The following citations are given to illustrate the state- 
ments just made and to indicate the use made of the word "dis- 
cipline.'' 

The type of instruction should be disciplinary rather than practical.^ 

The mind is chiefly developed in three ways : by cultivating the powers 
of discriminating observation ; by strengthening the logical faculty ; and 
by improving the powers of comparison. As studies in languages and in the 
natural sciences are best adapted to cultivate the habit of observation ; as 
mathematics are the traditional training of the reasoning faculties, so his- 
tory and its allied branches are better adapted than any other studies to pro- 
mote the invaluable mental power which we call judgment.^ 

This same committee, including among others, Charles W. 

Eliot, Wm. T. Harris, and James B. Angell, say : 

On the theory that all the subjects are to be considered equivalent in 
educational rank for the purpose of admission to college, it would make no 
difference which subjects he had chosen from the programme — he would 
have had four years of strong and effective mental training.^ 

To this James H. Baker objects as it ignores "Philosophy, 

Psychology, and the Science of Education. "(^) 

Arithmetic, if it deserves the high place it conventionally holds in the 
educational system, deserves it mainly on the ground that it is to be treated 
as a logical exercise.* 

^W. H. Payne, Contributions to the Science of Education., p. 50. 

-Report of the Committee of Ten, U. S. Bureau of Education, 1802, 
p. 168. 

^Report of the Committee of Ten, U. S. Bureau of Education, 1802, 
p. 87. 

^Bain, Education as a Science, p. 152, 



12 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

Arithmetic, when taught with this in mind — the notion of logical 
method — gives to the pupil not knowledge of facts alone, but that which 
transcends such knowledge, namely, power.i 

Value of technical instruction, that which regards hand and eye training 
Per se as an essential part of human culture.*-* 

During dictation (exercises) the child can get no chance to play, sleep, 
be idle, or do mischief. The process is the best and most perfect drill for 
order.3 

The fiction of formal education (Bildung) must be given up. In general 
there exist simply as many kinds of formal education as there are essen- 
tially different phases of intellectual employment.* 

For the training of this power of observation, it does not matter what 
subject the child studies, so that he study something thoroughly in an obser- 
vational method. If the method be right, it does not matter among the 
numerous subjects well fitted to develop this important faculty, which he 
choose or which be chosen for him.^ 

Mathematics does furnish the power for deliberate thought and accu- 
rate statement, and to speak the truth is one of the most social qualities a 
person can posess.*" 

Mathematics no more teaches reasoning in the ordinary sense than 
traveling by railroad fits a man for exploring in Central Africa." 

Nothing is better for developing gradually, and methodically, all the 
intellectual faculties of children than the study of grammar and literature. 
They exercise memory, sagacity, taste, judgment — under all its forms.* 

H. Sidgwick quotes the above and assents to it in essays 
on a Liberal Education, but feels it somewhat too sweeping. 

By cultivating the Greek and Roman languages we acquire skill in all 
mental operations. The study of mathematics ranks next in importance 
and furnishes an excellent training to the faculties.^ 

^Smith, The Teaching of Elementary Mathetnatics^ p. 26. 

■■^Fitch, Educational Aims and Methods^ p. 158. 

^Manual for Public School, 1850, p. 158. 

*Rein, Outlines of Pedagogics, p. 42. 

^Charles Eliot, Forum, 1892, p. 428. 

®Dutton, Social Phases of Education, p. 30. 

'J. M. Wilson, Master of Rugby, Essays on Literary Education, p. 24. 

^M. Cournot, De I'Instruction Publique. 

^Paulsen, on the stated purpose of the Gymnasia. 
Russell, Higher German Schools, p. 74. 



PART I 
EVIDENCE FROM ANALYTIC PSYCHOLOGY 

Analysis of the Doctrine of Formal Discipline. One of the 
reasons for the differences among people about the truth of the 
doctrine of formal discipline is the different meanings assigned 
to the phrase and to the other phrases used for the meaning. 
The Germans call it formal "Bildung," or formal education; it 
is also called formal training. While the second word in each 
case has a slightly different implication, they are at one in the 
emphasis of the formal element as opposed to the content 
feature. The following are some of the meanings which it has 
in actual use : First, it refers to the increase in general ca- 
pacity of the whole mind when exercised in a definite way. The 
mind is supposed to possess as a unity mental energy, force, 
power, spiritual unity ; it is a whole and homogeneous sub- 
stance, without parts or phases. It may be compared to a tank 
of a simple gas : invisible, simple, active, possessing a unity 
of direct contact, as well as of function. A man who inadver- 
tently uses the word "faculties" will hasten to say that he 
believes in a mental oneness. Under this position, a man 
trains his mind, and that is all there is to it. One person may 
do it in one way, and another in a different way, but the goal 
is the same : mental energy or sharpness results. Volkmann's 
statement that "whatever remains isolated, doesn't enter into 
development," is both true and false — true in that no such 
separate thing could be a real mental addition, but false in that 
there could be no such isolated knowledge. And strangely 
enough this thesis of spiritual power has come largely as a reac- 
tion against the faculty psychology, ignoring the truth of the 
Wolffian position m its efforts to show its falsities. But they 
have largely the same outcome for education : they both make a 
large opening for the generalized effects of special training. 
This point on its psychological side will be taken up later. 



14 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

However, there is much naive observation to lead to this 
"central energy" doctrine. We see that a brisk walk, though 
its particular form may be limited to the exercise of a few 
muscles, has a general bodily effect of making one feel better; 
or on the other hand a day's work with a very limited lot of 
muscles, the others being in a state of apparent rest, makes the 
whole body and mind tired. Each action seems to get a general 
response, there seems to be such a thing as inter-organic sympa- 
thy. It is easy to carry over this generalization to the realm of 
mind, and to make similar conclusions for it. Conscious exper- 
ience, also, supports this view, or seems to. We have a feeling 
of unity, a persistence of self oneness, not only longitudinally 
but latitudinally, not only from day to day, but in all the pro- 
cesses of the day at one time. We do not feel any such mental 
members, as we do physical. So whether we take analogy or 
direct consciousness, we may very rationally come out at the 
same place ; namely, that no effect is local, nor even localized 
with branches into other regions. Mind is then a totality, a 
unity, and any effect on it is total, and must be. 

The second meaning of formal discipline does not go so far. 
Man is a unity, but only in certain respects. It is now a matter 
of the one including the many. Man includes within himself 
many little men, each with a different character, yet in some 
mysterious way capable of assisting each other. These are 
called Perception, Memory, Imagination, Reason, Feeling, 
and Will. They are entirely disparate in character and in func- 
tion, but each is as real an entity and also as homogenous in 
constitution as was "The Mind" of the first position. The pre- 
cise attitude of this faculty psychology was laid bare in the phren- 
ology of Gall who located each of these separate persons with 
the names given above, in a separate compartment of the brain. 
A man didn't reason ; his Reason did. A man didn't memorize; 
his Memory did. A man didn't will, but his Will did. A man 
was not imagination, memory, etc. ; but he had imagination, 
memory, etc., assistants which he employed when he needed 
them. He himself was different from all these, as they were 
different each from the other. He really was a something outside 
of his own mental states of Memory, Imagination, Will. 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE iS 

There are three important sub-phases of this general posi- 
tion, which need to be stated. The first was put forward forci. 
bly by Beneke, one of the first strong opponents of the Wolffian 
psychology and its consequent pedagogy. He considered that 
there were three original possessions, different in degree but 
belonging to every person: (a) animation or sprightliness 
(Lebendigkeit), which shows itself in making of concepts, 
judgments, relations; (b) power or force (Kraftigkeit), which 
shows itself in greater moderation, less pain, fear, quicker 
recoveries; and finally, (c) impressionability, sensitivity 
(Empfindlichkeit) ; these three are fundamental impulses, origi- 
nal capacities, which become differentiated into many forms of 
activity in later life. Any enrichment, dwarfing, or modifica. 
tion of these primitive mental sources modifies all the mature 
processes depending on them. The analogy in the biological 
world is the differentiation in evolution from a single homog- 
enous protoplasmic cell into the later complex animals. These 
original possessions constitute a sort of general intelligence, 
whose early cultivation or limitation diffuses itself into all later 
developments. (^) 

The second is that represented by Dr. Bahrwald, C^) who 
conceives of the mind after the form of society, in which there 
are individuals, but which is much more than the mere numeri- 
cal unity of these. There is a general intelligence resulting 
from the refinements and organization of experience on the 
passive side, and also in turn reacting upon and directing these 
on later individual experiences. This is also really the position 
taken by Spearman, who holds that there is a kind of domina- 
ting or directing mentality susceptible of training through the 
exercise of its specific expressions. "There exists a something 
that we may provisionally term General Sense Discrimination, 
and similarly a General Intelligence, and farther that the func- 
tional correspondence between these two is not appreciably less 
than absolute. "O 

The third sub-phase concerns the internal groupings of the 
faculties, within which cross effects are possible. With Socra. 

^Beneke, Erziehungs und Unterrichtslehre. 

^Bahrwald, Theorie der Begabung^ p. 12. 

^Spearman, American Journal of Psychologv^ Vol. 15, p. 272. 



i6 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

tes, knowledge determined will, and since then there have been 
claimants for interactionary effects in all degrees: e. g.^ know- 
ledge affects the feelings, and the latter the will; memory acts 
on reasoning, and reasoning on presentation, but not on the 
different faculties of the feelings; so also the love for beauty in 
form increases the sensitivity to the aesthetic in other direc- 
tions, but is inoperative on the will. 

The third view of formal discipline does not go so far as 
the second. While the distinction is a very real one, especially 
in practice, it is not easy for me to give it. Its cleavage does 
not run between separate mental powers which may operate in 
a relatively independent way, but, without distinguishing 
between the mind and body as such, between organic processes. 
The conception is that the whole person, as such, functions in 
a certain way this moment and in another way the next, and 
that we may rightly classify these acts on the basis of certain 
elements common to the processes rather than on the things or 
powers which make up, or are involved in these acts. Under 
the former scheme, one trained his attention ; under this, he 
trains himself to do a complicated act called, as in the other, 
"attention." Or, one is trained in discrimination, which in its 
very wording puts emphasis on the act. This view refers to a 
congeries of nerve, muscle, attention, etc., which makes dis- 
crimination a function rather than a fact with mere content. 

To illustrate, a wood-chopper in the handling of the axe 
uses hands, arms, eyes, will, etc. So likewise does he use the 
same arms, eyes, will, etc., in pushing the plane, or driving a 
nail. The same engine may push or pull, or carry a load; may 
run up hill or down, backward or forward. The classification 
is made on the act in which the engineer — engine organism, 
enters as the agent. 

It conceives of every act as involving to a greater or less 
degree all the mental and physical capacities. For example,, in 
reading in Q^io Vadis of the fire in Rome, there is involved not 
only my ability to image absent objects, but also my capacity 
to memorize, to discriminate, to compare, to sense, to judge, 
etc., besides the motor accompaniments, which are equally 
present, though not to the same apparent degree. This posi- 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 17 

tion is clearly in the mind of the manual training advocates who 
speak of the hand-eye-mind training, or the motor-sense adjust- 
ments and co-ordinations. 

There is another phase of this diffusion theory of participation 
which I shall have to put in as a corollary, and yet it may have 
all of the truth there is in the doctrine of formal discipline. 
Emerson calls attention to the fact that character is not intel- 
lect, great mentality, or exceptional emotional qualities, or 
unusual volitional capacities, if we are to judge by the number 
or novel quality of their actions. Yet we say that certain per- 
sons have strong characters, commendable dispositions, a some- 
what which underlies all those more noticeable mental and phy- 
sical phenomena. Points in this general make-up may be sep- 
arated out, such as caution, reliability, sanity, prudence, taste, 
atmosphere, integrity, wholesomeness, application, sympathy, 
etc. These are not acts ; they are total habitual ways of per- 
sonal response. Their unity undoubtedly connotes what we 
mean by "culture. " These large personal values may not come 
from any transfer of special training in any of the senses already 
enumerated. Yet it may be that system, industry, economy in 
its largest meaning, personal unity, etc., may be obtained from 
the study of almost any subject, and, for the moment overlook- 
ing the knowledge side, from one subject as well as another. 
These accomplishments may be called generalized habits or 
modes of action. They are often referred to as the "sub-con. 
scious" effects of education as distinguished from the conscious 
ones, such as improvement in "method," skill, or what not. 
They are largely unmeasurable and untestable, but constitute 
the "color," the "atmosphere," the spirit, the character. We 
have become a part of every person and thing we have touched. 

The last view of formal discipline, to be now described, is 
the extreme of the first. It holds that we are machines for do- 
ing things, just as truly machines as any that our hands fashion 
for sawing lumber or rolling iron. We are a system of levers, 
pulleys, etc., a conscious machine, and the mind is a word used 
to distinguish a certain phase of the machine; for example, it 
defines the purpose, sees the end, marks out the way— it is the 
cabman on the carriage. Our learning to do this and that no 



i8 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

more signifies that we can do something else than the fact that a 
saw is tempered and sharpened for sawing signifies that it can 
make a shovel. It may make a shovel, but that is not because 
if its edge being a good saw but because it is of such form that 
it may be adapted to the two purposes. So we may do one thing 
well and also do another well, because we are so pliably con- 
structed that we may do these two things well. Also, I may be 
able to do one thing well and another very poorly, because in 
this case I am made correctly to do the one and incorrectly to 
do the other. To do the other, I shall have to make some new 
combinations of muscles and nerves, etc., that is, make a new 
machine for this new work. In support of this are brought forth 
many men of great skill in one line unskilled in others, who 
have to get this second skill if they wish it, by as arduous labor 
as if they could do nothing else. There is little or no cross 
influence. We do not cultivate "powers," or the "mind," or 
"faculties," or an "organism," but are drilled into specific 
modes of action, each with its own peculiar coordinations, 
mental and motor. Of course, the practical advice of this doc- 
trine in school life is to get at a thing that is to be done, with- 
out any intervention or doing of another thing as a medium. 

We have no Memory, Imagination, Reason, but can 
memorize this series of facts, not necessarily that ; have good 
judgment about this situation, but not another one ; can easily 
picture certain conditions, but not others. As with machines 
generally so with men : there are many sorts. 

These four positions seem to me to define the territory in 
which the problems of formal discipline arise. There yet 
remain the two questions: What is it that is carried over? and 
What are the means ? 

The first answer is that studies give an increase in the 
native force, original power, brute capacity — the foot-pounds of 
energy so to speak. "Intellectual capacities" carry here the 
idea of room that has been enlarged ; spiritual or emotional 
range that has been extended. It is as if more potentiality had 
been added. No one faculty is sharpened, no special skill or 
knowledge secured; but just as food in the body is carried to 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 19 

all parts of the organism of the growing child by the circulatory 
system, without in any manifest way giving skill or deftness to 
any one part, so mental pabulum, through some sort of mental 
circulation, apperception, or something else, adds energy, force, 
power, strength, range, capacity, richness to the soul. The 
mind is built up by what it feeds upon ; not simply by what is 
taken into it, but by what is assimilated. Then the teacher's 
problem becomes: "What are the studies with these largely 
nutritious elements in them, and what are the proper ways of 
presenting them so that they will most effectively be ingested 
by the mind, and, as properly digested food, eventuate in action.^ 
What such a teacher is after, then, is not this or that particular 
skill, or this or that body of .knowledge as such, but the issuing 
of opinions, judgment, poise, cosmic and human sympathy, 
insight and adaptability — in short, the quantity and quality of 
the larger life. 

The second position, of course, denies the first, and holds 
that the only result which is more than local in its effect is 
knowledge, —knowledge of facts which are of more or less gen- 
eral application, and of methods particularly. 

It is held more narrowly that one gets the idea of accuracy, 
say in mathematics, as a proper rule to follow in solving any sort 
of problem ; and so though one is never to use mathematics yet 
as it necessitates /«;' excellence the use of care, precision, etc., it 
is the subject to study so as to secure these methods which are 
of such universal application. The function of schools is to 
bring out in the clear forefront of consciousness from the frag- 
ments and ends of things called for convenience algebra, geo- 
graphy, etc., the common essences, their common values, and gen- 
eralize them. Get the knowledge first and then the habit of see- 
ing and experiencing in a vital way such things as truth, honesty, 
adaptability, humanity. Dr. Moore, in his article (^) on this 
subject, points out that the Greek teachers so universalized 
mathematics in their teaching, that number and geometrical 
form became to them a real way, a vital category for thinking 
any and all sorts of things universal, and had been made to arise 
out of the particular, in no mere metaphysical way, but in such 

^Western Journal of Education, May, 1903. 



20 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

direct contact with life that ever afterward it became an apper- 
ceptive form of the mind. We surely do have concepts not 
limited to the particular act which gave them origin. 

The third position holds that skill, keenness, facility is 
transferred. Logic makes an acute man; mathematics, an exact 
man; history gives, not the method of memorizing, but increased 
readiness; Latin trains to close observation; astronomy, to finer 
and sharper imaginative ability. The boy who is drilled in 
manual training does not get chiefly a method of procedure or 
way of going at things which he chiefly realizes would be good 
in the business world when he gets out into it ; but he is made 
into an accurate, polished machine, who will plan his law cases 
as he did his joinings. The student will remember the cost 
price of his goods because he has learned his Greek and Latin 
vocabulary; he will use good judgment in putting in an orchard 
or an irrigating ditch, because capacity was exercised in literary 
interpretation. Prefaces to many of the ^text-books used in our 
schools freely confess that the knowledge which will be carried 
away will be of limited application, as they can very well say 
without fear of contradiction of algebra, most of arithmetic, 
much of geography, and still more of language work, especially 
analysis. They could hardly claim for much of this work any 
wholesale mental enrichment, or deepening of the sympathies 
or appreciations. Nor do pupils from it learn methods of any 
very large application, but they are drilled in discrimination, 
in analysis, in observation, etc., and these arts when once 
acquired are usable, of course, wherever they are needed, Calvin 
Thomas says, "the value of German lies in the scientific study 
of German itself, in the consequent training of the reason, of 
the powers of observation, comparison, and synthesis, in short 
in the upbuilding and strengthening of the scientific intel- 
lect. "(^) 

The last view to be mentioned is the'^one espoused by the 

ultra-radical opponents of any sort of formal discipline. There 

are no general powers, even relatively general ; there are only 

specific capacities. We learn to do this thing and that ; we are 

^Quoted in Thorndike, Educational Psychology^ p, 83. 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 21 

very complex engines for accomplishing well defined ends, and 
though this machine may do many things, its one trick has 
nothing to do with the other. A broomstick may be used for a 
cane, but its original usefulness will in no way affect its second 
performance. Consciousness defines the end of the function ; 
the coordination of joints, muscles, nerves, etc., constitute the 
means. We learn to do by doing. Yes, but definitely, we 
learn to do this thing by doing this thing. There is nothing 
incidental, indirect, or mediated in this scheme. If a child is 
to learn to read, put him at it. He can't do it by listening to 
the birds or looking at the flowers. O'Shea, for instance, 
declares that "particular experiences give adjustment to particu- 
lar situations only, and not to all sorts of situations. '■(^) A 
good teacher may make a poor father; a good lawyer, a poor 
statesman; a good scientist, a poor citizen. Not long since a 
tin manfactuurer told me that a man presented himself at the 
shop for work, with a strong Ittter of commendation from his 
last employer. He was given materials which had been cut out 
by machinery, to put together. As I recall, they were to be 
coffee pots. He puttered about the work for a long while, and 
then reported to the manager that he could not do the task. 
But he said, "If you will let me have the sheet tin, lean do 
it." He was so permitted just to test his word; and with great 
skill he made a complete vessel in a few minutes. This example 
illustrates well the position which these anti-formalists take. 

There is a corollary to this last view which may be more 
important than its principal claim. It is that one action will 
aid another to the extent tnat the two involve the same mental 
coordinations. For instance, since the muscles of the arm are 
employed in drawing as well as in writing, so the training in 
one process will be of some assistance in the other. Voice 
culture for purposes of singing might assist the public speaker 
or elocutionist. "The thesis which I shall try to defend, "says 
Thorndike, ' ' is that a change in any one function alters any other 
only in so far as the two functions have as factors identical ele. 
ments. The change in the second function is in amount that 
due to the change in the elements common to it and the first. 
^Education as Adjustment, p. 246. 



22 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

The change is simply the necessary result upon the second func- 
tion of the alteration of those factors which were elements of 
the first function and so were altered by its training. To take 
a concrete example, improvement in addition will alter one's 
ability in multiplication, because addition is absolutely identical 
with a part of multiplication and because certain other processes, 
e,g., the eye movements and the inhibition of all save arithmeti- 
cal impulses, are in part common to the two functions." Q) 
This conception, as opposed to the others, may be called the 
biological one, as it is the logical outcome of the doctrine of 
adaptation or evolution. Thus there is no actual transfer here 
at all of power, skill, or method. Such seeming influences are 
due to the external setting, and not to the real differences in 
organic functioning. 

There is evidently another source of confusion among the 
writers on this subject which I have not mentioned. One will 
uphold his position by reference to the one-sidedness of a 
specialist, who has all the good qualities in his chosen line but 
is noticeably uneducated in other things. Indeed, he may have 
been at one time in his life fairly capable in several fields, but 
his skill in these was affected in inverse ratio to his skill and 
learning in the speciality. Another advocate will, from the 
same volume of human history, select cases where men have 
taken the restricted regimen of the old classical college, and 
have later stood at the head in some art or profession of which 
their college taught them nothing, — stood higher, in fact, than 
those who by the apprenticeship system had narrowed them- 
selves to that one thing only. It is possible that training car- 
ried on for a short period has a diffused effect, which manifests 
itself in a more or less heightened tone of all other parts, hence 
all other acts ; whereas, if the practice is of a very specific kind 
and kept up for a long period, the tracts of discharge become 
more pronounced, the other paths and complexes become in- 
creasingly isolated and less used. Growth and development 
have ceased and the individual has become a machine, a special- 
ist. This has not only empirical support, but it harmonizes 
with the doctrine of infancy before referred to. Childhood, 

^Thorndike, Educational Psychology, p. 80. 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 23 

with its vacillating interests, its unsystematized movements, its 
many sided curiosity, the very apparent stimulation of all sorts 
of motor reactions by one attempt to do one thing, say to write, 
contrasted with the processes of the adult which are both exact 
and limited in their noticeable influence to a narrow field, sug- 
gests that there may be more of truth in the doctrine of formal 
discipline for one period of life than for another, and also for 
one length of time as opposed to another. 

The Analysis of the ""Common Elements I am going to start 
out with a thesis stated by Thorndike in writing on this same 
subject: viz., "A change in one function alters any other only 
in so far as the two functions have as factors identical elements. 
The change in the second function is in amount that due to the 
change in the elements common to it, and to the first. " (^) This 
conclusion, which has been arrived at by the examination of the 
evidence, both logical and experimental, is put at the beginning 
for the purpose of giving an arrangement of the evidence. But 
"common element," though used very extensively as a final con- 
cession by antiformalists,(^)is a very ambiguous term,and I shall 
now call attention to some of the ways in which it has been em- 
ployed. 

It is first to be noted that the situations to which the above 
thesis is applicable cannot be determined in an a priori fashion 
by analysis. It is very difificult, also, to know when there are 
common elements. For example, the advocate of manual train, 
ing, on examining the act of a pupil in selecting a piece of wood 
to make a thin box, and the act of the same individual, now a 
man in life, in determining in what city it is best to locate his 
steel plant, says that "judgment" is the common element, and 
that the exercise in the former process carries over to the latter. 
This is a mere topical question, but it is not unusual in pedagogy 
to find such queries made the basis of educational theory and 
practice. 

As this whole inquiry has (to do with processes, we may 
rightly consider the chief factors to be, (a) the mind, (b) the 

^Thorndike, Educational Psychology^ p 80 

2See article by members of the Scholia Club in the Western Journal of 
Education^ 1903- 



24 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

body, (c) the environment, and (d) the interaction of these as a 
unity. The common element, therefore, must be present in 
one of these four situations. First, it may be in the likeness of 
the product of acts, or of objects or environment. An external 
similarity, multiplying six by seven, or adding eight and nine, 
are alike in that numbers are numbers. 

The act of a cat getting out of a box, and of a man are 
identical; both open a door by pressing a latch. A parrot talks 
and so does a person. The problem solved in the school arith- 
metic may be the same as the one in the counting house. A 
child of Mr. Smith is none the less his child when taught by 
him at school. But both empirical evidence and investigations 
declare such cases, though identical when viewed externally, to 
be very distantly related. The cat's act in getting out of the 
box is almost wholly a result of unconscious selection ; the 
man's is a highly deliberative and conscious one. (^) Certain 
numbers as such are identical, yet the correlation between the 
simplest ways of handling them may be very small. ('^) For 
given actions it has been sufficient to identify the elements in 
the curriculum of the elementary grades with the elements of 
the larger life, but it is only a superficial, not a psychological 
likeness. In the case of the tinner referred to a few pages ago, 
there was an identity of product only. He could make the 
vessel in one way only from the tin plate. When required to do 
it in a new way, the chain of associated acts to which he was 
accustomed was broken in the middle, and the initial ones com- 
pletely dropped. He was as helpless as would be a child to take 
up the steps in a demonstration in geometry, many steps along. 
Yet he was dealing not merely with similar, but identical 
material and output, and, more minutely, in ways or processes 
which were in part perfectly alike. 

Or, again, a fruit broker knows prunes as to their size, 
color, species, weight, preparation for market, etc., all in 
relation to market values. But put him in the orchardist's place 
who looks at the same fruit as a producer, and he is not so capa- 

^Thorndike, Anitnal Intelligence. 

^Aikens, Thorndike, and Hubbell. Psy. Rev.., IX, pp. 374-382. 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 25 

ble as an ignorant laborer. Yet both are dealing with the same 
object. Consequently no analysis of the external conditions, or 
subject matter, will suffice to discover the elements which, 
because of their sameness, can aid each other. 

Nor does "common element" refer to similarity of two 
mental states, though they may both have the same name. 
Thorndike and Woodworth (^) have shown that in the cases of 
judging the areas of slightly different forms, where most of the 
mental. elements are apparently closely alike, as attention, visual 
sensation, comparison, etc., the diffusion effects were very 
slight. The taster of wines is not noticeably more sensitive to 
differences in qualities of tea than ordinary folks. 

Again, it is not easy to know what are identical elements 
when the body as a machine is analyzed. It is easy enough to 
say that certain muscles and nerves are employed in two acts, 
and that training them to do one thing well will of course train 
them to do another well ; but such conclusions seem only par- 
tially warranted in practice. Dr. Jastrow(^) in extended tests on 
two sleight.of-hand performers, found that in ten out of twelve 
experiments, involving dexterous movements of hands and eyes 
— the very points of their skill— they were no better than the 
average student, and in some cases worse than the average. On 
the track team, the sprinter is no great walker. The artist is 
not famous for his penmanship. It is quite probable that these 
visible members of the body are mere appendices to the really 
basal participants in any movement ; namely, the cells and fibers 
of the nervous system. However, this is yet too great a terra 
incognita to find in it any common elements. 

There yet remains the total organism environment in which 
to seek the "common element." It would be difficult to get at 
the bicycle's secret by standing it up and looking at it. The 
historical philosopher would probably try it in that way; but the 
machinist would put the wheel in motion, and taking in the 
entirety, bicycle, speed, path, etc., get his principle. The 

\Psychological Review, Vol. V III, p. 344. 
2Jastrow, Science, N. S., May 8, 1896. 



26 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

environment is often set over against the subject for purposes of 
practical distinctions, but for scientific purposes, connected 
with functions, any such breaking asunder must destroy the very 
thing sought for. The real basis of action is not the sensory 
motor tract alone. The rather is it an action, circle, a totality, 
where the so-called environment is a vital, living part, — in it 
are involved all causes: final, efificient, and formal. Many 
cross sections of this circle may finally give the analyst his 
essential common element, and when found, it may be the least 
suspected phase of the whole process. For example. Wood- 
worth (^) found that mere exercise of the left hand, in the effort 
to reach an accomplishment, did not give an increase in excel- 
lence in the right hand ; it must be successful practice. And so, 
for the present, the only final method for reaching the truth de. 
sired, f?>.,what acts aid other acts, is the one of experiment, of 
trial. 

I return now to the general thesis which is to be defended : 
that there may be, or may not be, a transfer, and that it may be 
of different character in different cases, and of varying degrees. 

There are several supports for this judgment, though not 
proofs, found in the field of biology. We are walking histories 
of the past; every tooth, nail, lineament, member, tells the 
skilled observer what we have been doing, under what conditions 
we have lived. We have developed under the stress of circum- 
stances, which have always been specific situations. As the 
needs of life changed, new appliances were developed to meet 
them, and as the latter strengthened, the old appliances, their 
need gone, slowly passed away, or remained as vestigial organs. 
So we do not see any and all sorts of things, are not attentive 
to any and all sorts of objects, nor able to imagine any and all 
sorts of situations ; but we see, imagine, and are attentive to 
only those objects which have been a vital part of our envir- 
onment. 

From this statement it is inferable clearly that any such 
unitary basis as an amount of supposedly homogenous energy, 
or a complete organic function, (^) in every act is untenable. 

^Woodworth, Psychological Review. Mon. Sup. 13. 
^Seepp. 14, 19. 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 27 

So specific and needful are some performances that others, 
instead of being augmented thereby, are the rather slighted and 
dwindle away. On the other hand, this very capacity of the 
animal to adapt himself to new situations, implies such a rela- 
tion between new possible acts and the old ones, that the latter 
will aid the former by participating, wholly or partially, in 
them. 

This point is Drought out by examining the animal king- 
dom genetically. Cats and dogs are wonderfully skillful in do- 
ing certain things, but they learn other closely similar acts 
with great difficulty. It is near the truth to say there is, with 
them, no transfer from one act to another. With monkeys, 
there is greater pliability of the organism, and with man, still 
greater. He, however, is simply a more complex machine, 
with all his powers and abilities specific and not general. So 
his old habits do aid in acquiring new ones of a certain kind; 
viz., those which are largely alike in some biological essence to 
the old. 

From the study of the growth of the child, the same point 
is deducible. From youth on, life is selection, — taking on this 
habit or that mannerism, and finally this trade or profession, 
and finding, as in the case of Darwin, the neglected possibilities 
becoming more and more impossible. The boy can easily learn 
to ride the bicycle, or to speak a foreign tongue, but the adult, 
whether educated "all round" or in a specialty, finds much 
obstruction. 

The child can readily learn several languages, and speak 
them all equally well, but necessity forces a choice, which 
becomes a habit — and that gate of opportunity is closed, but 
closed that others may be opened. The man has simply become 
a machine to grind out a certain grist: educational, legal, medi- 
cinal, or what not. Habits, or training in certain ways, then, 
aid others by cooperating with them ; by assisting them. 

But there is the other side. He is never a pure machine; 
he is alive, and is changing, so that literally no two successive 
moments find him at the same place. He represents an un. 
stable equilibrium, hence every successive act is not what the 
preceding one was. Yet the preceding acts are the strongest 



28 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

determinant of what their successors shall be,— that is, educa- 
tion is possible. The effects of one day are not final, but deter- 
mine a new and different condition of tomorrow. "As men 
never think the same thought over again, so they never perform 
the same act over again, and the essential difference between 
living and non-living things lies in the fact that living things 
are constantly changing, and not merely changing under the 
influence of external surroundings, but that any change that 
takes place in them is not lost but retained, and, as it were, 
built into the organism to serve as the foundation for future 
actions."(^) 

It surely would hardly be held that the knowledge obtained 
in school can be used again only under the conditions in which 
it was first taught. As Bacon taught, it may become power in 
realms much removed from its original source. It becomes a 
means of guidance in undreamed-of situations. Newton 
learned, no doubt, his numbers in connection with balls, stones, 
people; he applied them to stars and unseen forces. Knowledge 
is never mere cumulation, a matter of numerical increase, as 
the atomist would logically hold ; as surely as the mind lives the 
individual facts are jostled along until they are either forgotten, 
or enter into vital connection with few or many other mental 
states. If the extended application does not arise, it is probably 
due to the character of the knowledge rather than to the nature 
of the mind. 

This last thesis is supported by Moore, who considers the 
transfer of training to come through an acquaintance with 
methods, ways of handling one's self, data, principles, tools. (^) 
It is also strongly emphasized in the educational philosophy of 
Dr. Dewey. (^) The school is to be a method of approach to the 
larger life, a place where the social forms and processes are 
acquired. So the tests, in such cases, of effective education, 
would be of the children's familiarity with social procedure, and 
their ability to use this knowledge under novel circumstances. 

The function and character of consciousness, the teleology 
^Moore, Western Jotirnal of Education, May, 1903, p. 299. 
^Moore, Western Journal of Education, May, 1903, p. 307. 
^Dewey, School and Society. 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 29 

of knowledge, throws a side light on the problem of transfer. So 
long as mind was made a receptacle for whatever might creep 
in through the "windows of the soul, " as Dr. Harris calls the 
senses, little could be said one way or the other on formal dis- 
cipline, unless there went with it the notion of mind as a sort of 
spiritual entity of the homogenous fluid sort. In that case, 
transfer would be large and inevitable. But mind in fact is 
selective, active, motor, not as a wound-up toy which runs 
helter-skelter, nor as a vessel which takes in everything, but as 
a train on a track that is going somewhere in a special way. So 
it goes well in this direction and poorly in another. We have 
eyes to see, but we do not see many things which are before us. 
We discriminate easily here but not there. These facts are 
remembered at a glance; others will hardly stay after many 
repetitions. These are the evident truths of consciousness, 
aside from the question of whether one act aids another. And 
it is the same in the emotional consciousness. A physician by 
whom I sat at the opera lately was transported by the music ; he 
could literally feel a bodily reponse throughout. Yet afterward 
he said he could not conceive of what religion meant or how it 
felt, or of what nature its emotions were. The same distinctions 
are applicable to the will. We desire and are strong here; we 
are colorless and ineffective there. We know of visuels, 
tactiles, audiles; of people who can see words, but can not say 
them ; who can say them, but cannot write them ; who can hear 
them, but get no meaning from them, whereas if they see them 
they can understand them, etc. So the "all-round man" and 
the "many-sided interest" are figures of speech. From the 
appearance of the impulses in the child, with its accompanying 
movements, to the philosophic or professional interests of the 
adult, the interests, the motives, the methods, the feelings, the 
ideals, the processes are functions, — are purposeful. 



PART II 
EVIDENCE FROM EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 

Empirical Studies of Formal Discipline 

The following section is a summary of the direct experi- 
mental data in so far as they have not already been summarized 
in the chapter on Formal Discipline in Thorndike's Educational 
Psychology. 

Dr. Jastrow reports a series of laboratory tests made on two 
men famous for their skill as sleight-of-hand performers, (^) and 
at the same time compares the data with that obtained from a 
group of students who were subject to the same tests. The skill 
of these men, due to years of practice, was such as to put them 
in the rank with the world's few thousands of best "hand-and- 
eye" trained people. 

He first determined their tactile sensibility— distance for 
two points— with aesthesiometer. Mr. Hermann, 3.5 mm.; 
Mr. Kellar, 2.5 mm. Average results from a considerable 
number of miscellaneous individuals, 2 mm. The next test was 
to arrange five weights in a series, in which each one weighed 
1-15 of previous weight; Mr. Hermann failed, Mr. Kellar suc- 
ceeded ; both failed for weights differing by 1-30. In general 
test, 92 % got the first test all right, 66% the latter. 

Sensitiveness to texture : Subjects passed their fingers over 
sets of wires wound closely. In the first set, the wires in each 
successive case were one.fourth coarser; in the second set, one- 
eighth coarser. The sets were to be put in order. Mr. Kellar 
put first set in correct order, but got all wrong in the second 
set. Mr. Hermann got both wrong. 

"Another form of motor and tactile capacity was tested by 
requiring subject to arrange in order a series of bars of varying 

^Jastrow, Science^ May 8, 1896. 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 31 

length by passing the forefinger across them." Both Mr. Her- 
mann and Mr. Kellar did this successfully, sixty per cent of a 
miscellaneous crowd also did it correctly. Both Mr. Hermann 
and Mr. Kellar are ambidextrous. They were tested in moving 
both hands equidistant from a central point to right and left. 
Average distance for right hand was 241.5 mm., for left hand, 
247 mm. There was no regularity as to which hand would go 
farther from central point, as is shown by the following figures: 
for Mr. Hermann, 318, 330, 123, 302, 116, 260 for right hand; 
316, 344, 140, 268, 160, 225, for left hand. This variation in 
the distance of the two hands is common to people in general. 
For Mr. Kellar, for right hand: 281, 357, 404, 155, 108, 313 
mm.; for left hand, 268, 333, 411, 187, 133,337- Average 
excess for left hand, 8. 5 mm. ; average for right hand, 270 mm. ; 
left hand 278 mm. ■ There was no regularity as to which moved 
the farther. 

"The subjects were required to mark off on the three arms 
of a cross a distance equal to that marked off on the upper arm 
of the cross, 50 ram. The lengths of the arms were unequal. 
Results for Mr. Hermann, on the left arm, 70. 5 mm. ; right arm, 
44. mm. ; lower arm, 60.5 mm. Mr. Kellar, left arm, 54.5 mm. ; 
right arm, 52. 5 mm. ; lower arm, 50 mm. Average for a mis. 
cellaneous group : left arm, 54 mm. ; right arm, 54 mm. ; lower 
arm, 61 mm. Mr. Kellar's average for the lower arm was less 
than the general average. 

Visual perception test: "form alphabet;" "twenty-five 
characters were made, composed of short and long, vertical and 
horizontal strokes in various combinations. Two hundred and 
fifteen of these were printed in miscellaneous order upon a sheet. 
A certain one of these was singled out for identification, and 
the subject was required to indicate as many occurrences of this 
character as he could detect within a limited time (90 seconds). 
Mr. Hermann marked off eight correct ones. Mr. Kellar 
marked off eleven. The general average of persons succeed 
in recognizing about eight forms in this time." 

Tests for quickness of movement and of mental processes: 
"For Mr. Hermann the maximum number of movements of the 
forefinger alone was 72 in 10 seconds, or 7.2 per second; and of 



32 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

the forearm, 75, or 7. 5 per second. For Mr. Kellar, forefinger, 
83 in 15 seconds, or 5.5 per second; and for the forearm, 127 or 
8. 5 per second. The average for large number of individuals for 
the forefinger movement, was 5.4 per second; and of a group of 
ten persons, 4.8 per second. The average forearm movement of 
the same ten persons was 7.5 per second. It thus appears that 
the movements of both Mr. Hermann and Mr. Kellar are rapid." 
Reaction time of Mr. Hermann to touch on right hand, 104° ; 
variation, 11 ° ; Mr. Kellar's time was 129'-' ; average variation 
10 '^ . For sound for Mr. Hermann, 163 *-' ; average variation 
32"^. For Mr. Kellar, 116®; average variation, 25 <^ . For 
visual reaction for Mr. Hermann, 126*^; average variation, 
26° ; for Mr. Kellar, 125*^, average variation, 6*^. For a 
group of miscellaneous people: touch, 172*^; sound, 165'-'; 
light, 176'^. "It thus appears that both of the special subjects 
tested, their reaction time was quicker than that of the average 
individual. "(^) 

To test manual quickness of movement : Time was taken 
between the touching of two instruments three feet apart, with 
same hand. Mr. Hermann's time, 610'^, variation, 76"^ ; Mr. 
Kellar's, 299*^, variation, 23°. Compared with ten other in- 
dividuals, whose average was 364 '^ , Mr. Kellar's time is below 
normal, although it is equaled by six out of the ten ; and Mr. 
Hermann's time is very long. 

Distribution of red and blue, associated with movements of 
right and left hands. "Mr. Hermann's time was 301 "^ , average 
variation, 64°; Mr. Kellar's, 256°, average variation, 56°.'' 
Both shorter than with the miscellaneous group. But a more 
complicated reaction involved a movement with any one of the 
five fingers in response to the appearance of the numbers i, 2, 3, 
4, 5, behind an opening in a screen. '' Mr. Hermann's time 
for such a reaction was 901 °, with a variation of 200° ; Mr. 
Kellar's time being 753'-', with a variation of 91'-'. The 
average time for ten individuals for such a reaction is 588®, 
with a variation of 84 *^ . So "their time is below normal in a 
reaction involving a simple distinction and choice, and is con- 

1 J astro w. Science, May 8, 1896. 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 33 

siderably larger than the normal in a reaction involving a com- 
plex distinction and choice." 

For quickness in perception of color: Mr. Hermann, com- 
pared with 40 persons, had about the same quickness 5 to 4.5, 
had much better when color and form were combined: 3 to 1.8; 
and also for words seen separately, 2 to 1.4, but could read 
clearly fewer words in one exposure. So Jastrow concludes, 
"On the whole as regards the quickness and scope of perception, 
Mr. Hermann would rank well (except in reading words in a sen- 
tence), but by no means exceptionally well in the general 
average." Mr. Kellar, in a similar test, ranks below Mr. Her- 
mann in all but the reading of words in a sentence, but would 
be equalled by 86% of college students." 

"I have repeated these tests on a local sleight-of-hand per- 
former, and find for him a good record and particularly a great 
quickness in movement." 

At the Montana State Normal College, Dr. Bagley under- 
took to determine whether the habit of producing neat, well ar- 
ranged papers in the arithmetic work would function in the 
written work in English, Geography, and other studies. The 
experiments were carried on for three months in the inter, 
mediate grades. The results are most startling. The improve- 
ment in the arithmetic papers was large and very noticeable 
from the first, but during the same time there was not the 
slightest noticeable improvement in the appearance of the 
language and spelling papers. (^) 

A recent extended contribution (^) to the problem'of formal 
discipline is limited strictly to the territory of memory. There 
were eight subjects, all adults and people of large training. 
The tests were secured through use of A. non-sense material : 
(i) letters; {2) figures; (3) non-sense syllables. B. sense 
material: (i) words; (2) Italian words with no logical connec- 
tion ; (3) poetic phrases, and (4) prose sentences. By these the 
immediate retentiveness was determined. For testing the rate 

'^School and Home Education, 1904, p. 102. 

■^E. Ebert and E. Meumann, Archiv fur die Gesamte Psychologies IV 
B. IV 2 H, 1904. 



34 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

of forgetting, another test was set consisting of long rows of 
non-sense syllables, rows of many-formed figures (visuella 
Zeichen), Italian vocables, poetic phrases, and prose sentences. 
It is to be noted that these preliminary tests were very extended, 
especially the second ones, which were relearned at intervals of 
increasing length, the rate of forgetting being thus determined 
by the comparative number of repetitions necessary to regain 
them. 

Then came the practice series, consisting of 32 rows of 
non-sense syllables, 12 in a row. However, only 8 rows were 
learned, and relearned once, when a test series was again given. 
This method of retesting with the long preliminary series was 
thus gone through three times, and seemingly occupied much 
more time than the practice series. This taken in connection 
with identity in kind of some of the material, and great simi- 
liarity of the rest, made it possible to report the following 
improvement in per cents: 

Figures. Words. Prose. 

85% 11% 

57% 28% 

160% 60% 

22% 11% 9% 

57% 28% 

i4%0 ^^1o 

These appear sufficient to the authors to enable them to 
say: "It may not be denied when the facts are taken into con- 
sideration that there is a general memory training, also that it 
is out of the question to increase through practice any special 
memory isolated from the totality of memory function, "(^) 

In order to test James' position on the incapability for 
increase in the memory powers. Winch exposed to different 
school grades, at intervals of about 7 days, twelve consonants 
arranged in four rows. After being presented, they were repro- 
duced in writing in 25 seconds by the children. As an example 
of the increase, standard seven may be taken. Tests with 

^p. 165. 2p J j7^ Sjgj (Amounts less than i per cent omitted.) 





Non-sense syllables 


B. 


60% 


Br. 


40% 


F. 


125% 


M. 


16% 


S. 


33%0 


W. 





FORMAL DISCIPLINE 35 

entirely different combinations of the consonants were given on 
June 5, June 12, and July 3, and the results of increase in 
memory are shown by the following per cents of consonants 
remembered in proper order: 25.5, 30.3, 32.7. His conclu- 
sion is that James is wrong; that "pure memory'' is markedly 
improved by practice. When one considers the shortness of 
the practice and the largeness of the results, it seems pretty 
evident that the interpretation of their efficiency was familiarity 
with novel data, and not increased native power. 

Mrs. Carrie Liddle practiced sorting a pack of well-shuffled 
cards of six different colors, as rapidly as possible. All the 
cards as they were taken from the pack were put in a particular 
stall. When the maximum speed in sorting this pack was 
attained, another pack made up of cards differing in color from 
those in the first pack were sorted. The sorting of this second 
pack was kept up until a speed limit was reached. Then a pack 
having various geometrical designs on the cards was distributed 
in stalls as were those with colors. She found that going over 
from one pack of cards, after a speed had been reached, did not 
raise the time of curve much, if at all, and consequently ihat 
ability secured in discriminating one set of colors, or designs, 
aided in doing the same process with other colors and designs. 
And this was invariable for the eleven subjects, some of whom 
were children; the others, adults. 

Psycho-physically the process was very complicated, so 
that while there is no question of the fact of distribution of cards 
of one sort, with greater facility, from practice with another 
sort — and that is a pertinent conclusion, — yet it is possible that 
this facility was due to the persistence or presence of, and hence 
training of, some simple motor co-ordinations. (^) 

Cross -Education. Another series of studies bearing on the 
general topic are the "cross-education" experiments. By this 
term is meant the results in skill, power or size in one side of 
the body produced by training the other. When Blair elec- 
trically stimulated the muscles of one ear, the motor discharge 
was simultaneous in the other, there being a tendency for the 

^ From an unpublished ihts\s on Transfer of Mental Facility, Univer- 
sity of California, 1904. 



36 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

two to work together, as with children there is a tendency for 
both parts of the body to work together. So there is this much 
of a cross effect: a co-ordinate stimulation. However, "when 
an impulse has once actually reached the muscles, the process 
from that point onward is one of segregation, elimination, co- 
ordination, adaptation." 

Bryan, at the conclusion of his work on motor-ability says: 
"It is certain that the right hand does not outgrow the left, and 
the fact that at i5 and i6 years of age, the probability of R>L 
is less than at 12, 9, or 6 years of age, seems to indicate that 
the left has gained upon the right. At all events, the fact that 
the left hand should make such relative improvement both in 
ability to carry out a movement, in which the right hand has had 
all the practice, tends to confirm the probability of bilateral 
effects of practice," which he says is largely mental. 

"The amount of force which can be exerted through one 
hand, and the time during which it can be exerted depend upon 
whether at the same time or just preceding, force has been ex- 
erted through the other hand." (^) 

Volkmann, by practice, increased the sensitiveness to the 
difference between two points on the left arm from 23.6 to 11. 2; 
at the same time there was an increase in the right arm, which 
was not practiced, from 26.4 to 15, 7. (^) To determine whether 
other symmetrical parts are thus trained, he found the distance 
within which two points appeared as one for the tips of the 
fingers of both hands, and also for the left arm. Increasing by 
practice the distance on one of the fingers of the left hand, in- 
creased it for all the other fingers but not for the arm. 

The most extended experiments on this phase of the subject 
come from the Yale Psychological Laboratory. The first are 
from W. W. Davis. {^) 

Oscar Raif, Professor of Music in the Berlin Hoch Schule, 
took the average speed of some pupils for both hands. For the 

^Bryan, American Journal of Psychology, Vol. V, p. 202. 
^T\\ortidi\it, Educational Psychology, p. 86. 
^Yale Psychological Studies, Vol. VI, p. 7. 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 37 

right, it was 116 per minute; for the left, 112. He gave them 
exercises for the right hand only to develop rapidity. After two 
months the right hand yielded 176. Then he tried the un- 
practiced left hand, and it had gone up to 152, from 112. 

(^) Exercising the great toe in rapid tapping, brought up the 
ability of the other foot, and both hands, though to a much less 
degree. 

In lifting weights by the right arm, its strength and size 
were increased ; and at the same time and on the same parts in 
the other arm, which was unpracticed, there was an increase. 

Also in lunging with a foil, six subjects were practiced, 
with right hand, with the effect of increasing its accuracy very 
markedly; and also, in a lesser degree, the accuracy of the left 
hand, which was not practiced. 

The records of four experienced fencers are given. Ac- 
customed as they are to use foil in right hand, they were little 
more skillful with the left hand than the unpracticed. The 
author remarks that the "form" of the right and left sides was 
very alike, and that the "fencers themselves were surprised to 
find it s© easy to lunge lefthanded. " 

(^) Group IV practiced the right hand in grasping a stick, 
but the transfer was of a negative sort, there being losses. 
This may be due, says Davis, to the fact that "the muscles 
learned how to contract properly for pressure of the cylindrical 
stick, but gained no advantage from this for gripping the 
dynanometer. ' ' 

"F. was a strong, healthy man, a trained and skilled gym. 
nast. During 21-2 weeks practice — in tapping with right 
foot — he was not able to make any marked gain. He himself 
said, 'If I try to hurry too much, my foot stops almost 
altogether.' His gymnastic work had so developed his ability 
to send down to large muscles immense amounts of stimuli for 
action, that for a test involving small muscles he could not 
become an expert.'' C) 

^W. W. Davis, Vale Studies in Psychology, Vol. VI. 

^W. W. Davis, Yale Studies in Psychology, Vol. VIII, p. 75. 

^Davis, Yale Studies in Psychology, Vol. VIII, p. 81. 



38 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

Of two subjects, one with much previous training, the 
other the reverse, the former gained in skill with a new instru- 
ment much more rapidly, as the table shows. (^) 

I St final 2nd final Average 
Previously trained 10.48% i4-36% 12.42% 

Not previously trained -1.27% 2.50% .61% 

On classifying subjects beforehand as phlegmatic and ner- 
vous, Davis found that a certain form of exercise had more 
effect on one class than another. Observe the following 
table :(0 

The effects of this sort of practice on one person are indicated 
here: 

I st final 2nd final Average 

First, light practice 2.78 .24 1.51 

Second, vigorous practice 12.04 6.85 9.42 

The following table indicates two things : first, the transfer 
from the practiced to the unpracticed hand ; and, second, the 
difference in the amount of transfer as produced by vigorous and 
light practice. The ergograph was used to secure the practice. 

Distance weight 

was lifted in 

beginning. 



Distance. 


Gain. 


Distance 


Gain 


after 3 wks. 




after 7 wks. 


over 


of practice 




further 


I St 


(hard). 




light 
practice. 


final 


1488 


11% 


1757 . 


18% 


1492 


13% 


1541 


3% 



Left hand 1341 
Right hand 13 16 

(not practiced) 
Note that though right hand gained much in first effort, it 
did not at second. "This fact proves that the unused does not 
always get a share in the benefits of exercise. One side, by 
long continued practice, may become over-developed, while the 
strength of the symmetrical muscles on the other side may even 
be diminished. "(^) 

Joteyko fatigued right hand by exercise with ergograph, 
and finally secured pressure records with dynamometer for both 
^Davis, Yale Studies in Psychology^ Vol. VIII, p. 92. 
2D avis, Yale Studies in Psychology, Vol. VIII, p. 93. 
^Davis, Yale Studies in Psychology, VIII, p. 100. 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 39 

hands, as was also done at first. There was 2i decrease inactivity 
of left hand about equal to 20%. He concludes "the decrease 
in the unused hand was caused by the loss of energy in the 
cerebral enters. "(^) 

Davis with the dynamometer tested both hands, then prac- 
ticed one of them. About half of the fifty subjects trained one 
hand, and the remainder trained the other. There was a gain of 
8.06% for the men with the trained hand, and an average gain 
of 9.92% for the untrained. For the women, there was a direct 
gain of transference of 5.84%. There was a transfer effect for 
all the men but one; for the women, six failed to gain at all, and 
five lost somewhat. ''('^) 

(^)The left biceps and right abductor indices of two sub- 
jects, R. and W., were trained. The gain for W. was 26% ; for 
R-> 43%. I^ut also the left abductor which was not exercised 
showed a gain of 100% for W., and 40% for R. The gain in the 
right biceps, "the most remote anatomically," was correspond, 
ingly less — 8% for W. and 32% for R. Other experiments were 
made by training the right abductor indices, with an effect of 
52% gain for W. and 45% for R. ; and left biceps, of 2% for 
W., and 4% for R. So that "it appears that the accessory 
muscles of one side gain approximately as much from the exer- 
cise of the corresponding muscles of the opposite side as from 
the exercise of the fundamental muscles of the same side. That 
is to say, the diffused motor discharge from one side to the 
other is as great as that from the shoulder center to the finger 
center." For example, "the left abductor had no training, 
and shows a total gain throughout the entire series of about 
300%." "Also it seems certain that the exercise of any muscle 
reacts upon all related muscles, which is to say that diffusion 
takes place in both inward and outward directions.'' 

The right hand and left were both tested for keeping up 
three balls. Then the training for the right was continued until 
great skill was reached, when the left was tried again. No tables 

^Davis, Yale Studies in Psychology^ VIII, p. 104. 

*Davis, Yale Studies in Psychology^ VIII, p. 72. 

*Wissler and Richardson, Psychological Review, VII, p. 29. 



40 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

are given, only the curves, which show: (i) "That the record 
for the left hand was in alKcases higher than the preliminary 
test, never in one case dropping to it. " (2) "All the subjects 
made a better record with their untrained left hand, when 
practice'was -'finally begun, than they had been able to do with 
the right hand at the beginning. ''(^ 

"Volkmann found that six months of regular practice in dis- 
tinguishing small visual distances, in which his eye gained 
remarkable power, had no effect whatever on his ability to dis- 
tinguish small tactual differences. " (^) 

A Miss B. was required to insert a pointed iron in a series 
of holes of diminishing size. She did it first with the left hand, 
giving 50% of successful trials. Then training with the right 
hand so that the number of successful trials rose from 60 to 88, 
the left hand was again given its turn, showing 76% of success- 
ful trials. C) 

That the chief element here is the attention is shown by the 
lowering percentage if there were any distractions, and (second) 
if the attention was focused on the movement rather than on the 
hole. "The training was psychical rather than physical." 

By using a dynamometer, the pressure by the left hand 
arose from 29.6% on March 7 to 42.3% on March 20; while the 
practice was all with the right hand, whose strength arose from 
28.8 to 48.6 in the same time.(*) 

Simon noted the curious fact that practice in judging with 
both' eyes brought with^ it but little betterment in judging 
with either eye alone; but when the left eye had been practiced 
by itself to its maximum powers, then the right eye also, 
although itself unpracticed, was nevertheless found to have 
advanced to its maximum. 

iSwift, American Journal of Psychology, XIV, p. 201. 
aSwift, American Journal of Psychologv, XIV, p. 220. 
sScripture, Yale Psychological Studies,Yo\. II, p. 114. 
♦Scripture, Yale Psychological Studies^VoX. II, p. 118. 
"^Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 56, p. 589. 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 41 

"Practice with the left hand helped the right hand also,"(^) 
as is shown by the following table: 

40 120 200 

Before . 3.1 3.9 7-i 

After ■ ■ .07 3.8 6.6 

"There is no appreciable improvement at the rates for 
which the left hand had not improved. These results show (i) 
that the transference from one side to the other — a transference 
which has been established in other investigations as taking 
place from the right side to the left — also takes place from the 
left to the right ; and (2) that it is not mere practice that has 
this effect, but only successful practice. '' 

From these experiments on cross-education, the following 
may be said : There may be a carrying over of training effects 
from one side of the body to the homologous members on the 
other side ; these effects may be either in the form of skill, or 
force. In some cases there is no transfer; in some a negative 
transfer, or loss. There are indications that the "common ele. 
ment" is quite as much mental (knowledge of method or direc- 
tion ; attention), or objective, the likeness of the external situa- 
tion, as that it is physical. The failures and losses are as im- 
portant for a correct theory as the success. 

Correlation. — The chief evidence which anti-formalists bring 
forward is the seemingly convincing one of the manifest differ- 
ences among people as we find them. If a man had a good 
memory for tones, but a poor one for colors, one who believes 
in a "memory faculty'' might consistently explain this varia- 
tion as due to the differences in the nature of the stuff — tones 
being easier to retain than colors. But if that were the explana- 
tion, all people should be better in committing tones to mem- 
ory than in memorizing colors; and increasmg one's skill in do- 
ing one thing should give a corresponding increase in doing the 
other. To prove this false seems a work of supererogation, so 
plenteous are the human refutations all about us. There are, 

^Woodworth, Psy. Rev„ Monograph Series 3, p. 104. 



42 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

however, as is well known, studies by Wissler, (^) Aikins, (^) 
Thorndike and others, (*) which, even after their results are cor- 
rected for attenuation, as shown by Spearman, (^) show the 
thorough.going lack of complete correlation. 

Data from tJie Education of Extreme Types . Some side con- 
tribution bearing on this problem comes from the education of 
the extreme types. When we are dealing with the average man 
who is fairly well equipped with the abilities society demands, 
it is easy enough to make assertions both ways. On the one 
side the formalist can point out the numerous men who have 
taken the straight old line college course and who have gone 
into the most diverse occupations and succeeded, and say, "See 
what his Latin, mathematics, etc., did for him; and further, he 
will point to the tradesman, the artisan, the clerk, who has not 
had the intellectual training given by the college course. His 
opponent, some Herbartian, perhaps, will reply that the first 
men had such native talents that they would have succeeded in 
any case; that they went to college as they wore certain clothes, 
because it was the thing to do among their set, and that since 
all, or most all, bright youths aspired to go to college, naturally 
enough the colleges produced great men. 

But it is different with the abnormal classes, where the 
effort of the schools is to make them normal, and where the 
efforts are more or less measurable. As is known, idiots and 
young criminals were until quite recently considered hopeless 
and treated accordingly. However, men with the opinion of 
Dr. Seguin(^) have held that many such seemingly hopeless 
cases were merely instances of undeveloped conditions, and as 
Beneke had held in the early part of the century, so conceived 
of education as the removal of hindrances, the opening up of 

""Psychological Review, Monograph Supplement No. 
'^Psychological Review, Vol. IX, pp. 374 ff. 

^Columbia Contributions to Philosophy , Psychology, and Education, 
Vol. IX, passim. 

'^American Journal of Psychology , Jan., 1904. 

''Rooper, Educational Studies and Addresses, ch. I. 
Seguin "On Idiocy." 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 



43 



avenues, the removal of limitations. So Dr. Seguin began by 
merely exercising the limp, flabby hand of the imbecile, mas- 
saging the muscles, moving the arm up and down. Then he 
gave the children incentives at first for doing physical move- 
ments. From these simple bodily processes, the steps are to 
easy mental requirements. So finally the clouded and atrophied 
tracts become open, both for the reception of sense stimuli and 
transmission of motor impulses. Often there would be freedom 
of innervation, but control would be wanting. "The eyeballs 
would roll from side to side with a short uneasy motion, and the 
range of their movements was small. " By selection of proper 
exercises, these irregularities were often brought under control. 
In this way a higher intellectual life was made possible. The 
transfer was in giving even what normal abilities the child had, 
a fair opportunity and in putting some links in the chain of ac- 
complishments. "Arrested development must be taken to mean 
unequal arrests." "There are ten per cent of imbeciles above 
the median in memory, and nine per cent in intelligence 
tests. "(^) Johnson(^) points out that retentiveness is not a 
prominent factor in feeble.mindedness. More than 15% of im. 
beciles are equal to average children in tested mental traits. 

These quotations from studies on imbeciles, who differ from 
the average person only in degree, support two assertions: — 
First, that "the normal intellect depends upon the interaction, 
and proper co-ordination of various parts of the nervous system," 
which same parts can be more or less effectively put together by 
the processes of education; and, second, these ''powers" or 
"faculties" of the weak-minded are of unequal strength, and 
show no tendency to bring up the wanting faculties or abilities. 
To further refine the first conclusion, it means two things: that 
the education of the socially incompetent consists in the acquire- 
ment of certain habits or co-ordinations which are of more or 
less general applicability, and will so make them tolerable by 
society and partially self-supporting, and again that these newly 
formed habits and opened pathways make it possible for their 

^Norsworthy, The Psychology of Mentally Deficient Children. 
^Johnson, Education of the Feeble-Minded. 



44 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

more normal capacities, previously hemmed in and hampered, 
to find expression. 

The history of the reformation of criminals has run a par- 
allel course with that of imbeciles. They were judged to be all 
bad, and hopelessly so. Now, we think with many, if not all, 
that both statements are false. The phrase "honor among 
thieves" indicates but one of many virtues which thieves may 
possess. Their feelings may be very tender under certain excit- 
ing situations, and completely lacking in others. Criminals 
are often very religious, have keen aesthetic appreciations, and 
yet are morally insensible. Their judgments and intuitions are 
often very alert and refined in one line, but without efficiency 
in others. (^) Their courage is superb, often under the most 
terrible circumstances; and under others, their timidity, fear 
and cringing are despicable. Heredity and training seem to 
accentuate in them all sorts of differentiations in mental traits; 
and their training is often of the hardest and most successful 
sort. 

Nor are they hopeless. They seem so to be under the 
formal disciplinist conception of education, which makes them 
dress alike, march in line, go to bed and get up at a certain 
minute. The requirements in penitentiaries are military: 
minute, exact, orderly. This, it is presumed, gives the prison 
habitues the habits and ideas of accuracy, promptness, obe- 
dience, respect, neatness, orderliness, industry. True it is that 
the inmates do for years these very commendable things ; and to 
an onlooker who sees these men making such records as any 
martinet might be proud of, the prison system seems truly to be 
a great human reformatory. But it is only in the seeming; the 
facts are very different. Few of the men are made better, and 
most of the youths much worse. So now there are coming into 
existence such institutions as the George Junior Republic, (^) 
and the Elmira Reformatory ('), which abandon the doctrine of 
formal discipline and so employ an entirely different scheme of 

iRavelock Ellis, Criminology, ch. on Psy. of Criminals. 
^George Junior Republic, World's Work, Vol. II, p. 1296. 
^Winter, Elmira Reformatory, N. Y., p. 2. 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 45 

education. It rests on two notions: first, the inmates are to 
acquire the knewledge and ideals of the better people of the 
larger world outside, and get the habits and modes of action 
which they will need in that larger life; second, to get these 
the prisoners are organized as far as possible into a type of 
society at large, in which the means, methods, motives and 
rewards are duplicates of those which will be needed when out 
of the prison. 

In a word, on the negative side, they have abandoned the 
cultivation of reason, of the will, of the emotions, of the habits 
of order, of obedience, etc., and they train individuals to do the 
particular things they need to do, to think and feel in the partic- 
ular ways that will be desirable for them, and finally to know 
the particular things they need to know. 

These institutions are successful as the records of the "grad- 
uates" for ten years show only a very small per cent that go 
back to their former wayward life. 

New Experimental Data 

The first experiments to be reported are two on the practice 
effects of memorizing, which were carried on, from the point of 
view of method, in the manner of those of Professor Wm. James 
on this same subject, except that the material was more varied. 
Subject K's preliminary and final test series were with rows of 
figures, each prepared by a different person, and the practice 
was on poetry; subject ^B's tests were with names of places, the 
practice in poetry. 

First experiment : Subject K. committed to memory five 
rows of figures, thirty figures in each row, at the rate of one row 
per day. This was the first test. The final test was also for 
five days, one row per day of thirty figures. The training was 
carried on for four weeks and consisted of memorizing sixteen 
lines per day from "In Memoriam. " The data are given with 
curves. Fig. I. 

But one figure in the first test is as low as the highest in 
the final test. The absolute difference in the two series is 28 
minutes, or 58% of the time of the first test. The average sav. 
ing for each trial is 5.6 minutes on an average time of 9.6 min- 



46 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

utes in the first series. Furthermore, the final test does not 
continue to fall as if it were part of the practice curve started in 
the first test. It may be that there were certain figure combin- 
ations in the first test which offered peculiar difficulties to the 
subject. Of such she was unaware, for she felt no special 
obstructions in one group more than in the other. No doubt 
the habit of doing this sort of mental work at a certain period 
each day, and the passing away of certain mental confusions 
which at first operated, were large factors, possibly sufficient to 
account for the difference. On the other hand, it is quite prob- 
able that the failure of Professor James' subjects to improve 
was due to their mental poise and "at-homeness" in doing just 
such work. 

The more specific directions for subject B. in the memory 
test were as follows : (i) Write out five lines of names of places, 
with fifteen names in each line, and commit one line each day 
for five days. The record for the time was kept in minutes, and 
will be found with Figure 2. (2) Two stanzas of "Faerie 
Queene" were committed then, every day for five weeks, the 
record again being carefully kept. (3) Again five lines of names 
of places, fifteen in each line, were memorized, at the rate of 
one line per day. 

By reference to Fig. 2, it will be seen that the work was 
done in a shorter time, the absolute difference being four min- 
utes, or 22% of the time of the first test. The first test is too 
brief to give, thinkably, any practice effect that would extend 
over the five weeks of interval. It is possible that the reflex 
from the learning of the poetry came in the form of a mental 
preparedness for doing that kind of thing each day. 

The possible increase in the ability to remember figures, 
could readily come from the special training in doing that very 
thing in so many subjcets of the curriculum. 

On the whole, then, an increased efificiency has come from 
these four years. It has been small for the most part ; less than 
could be secured by a few days of direct training. So as a by 
product of their particular courses, while it is definite and pos- 
sibly all that could be expected, it is almost negligible. 

The second experiment concerned the improvement brought 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 



47 



IS- 



Jl 



10- «-» 



— s 



A. 



B. 



[in 



ru 



F.ql. 



n^ 



U^u 





B. 



Lr--i^ 



Fio2. 



Fig. I. Improvement of memory for figures due to practice in mem- 
orizing poetry. Subject K. A shows the abih'ty in memorizing figures (in- 
versely, by the time taken) before the practice (solid line) and after the 
practice (dotted Hne). B shows the course of practice (by the time taken) 
in memorizing poetry. The times required for learning 30 figures were: 
before practice, 9, 12, 13,9 and 5 minutes, after practice 4, 5, 5, 2.5 and 4 
minutes. The times required for learning 16 lines of "In Memoriam," were; 
in order, 12, 14, 10, 14, 12, 10, 13, 9, 12, 10, 16, 13, 15, 6, 8, S, 7, 10, 7, 10, 9, 1 1 
6, 12 II, II, 9, 6 minutes. ' 

Fig. 2. A and B mean the same as in Fig. i except that here the 
record is that of Subject B. The times required for learning 30 figures 
were: before practice, 4, 4, 3, 3 and 4, after practice, 4, 3, 2, 3 and 2. The 
times required for learning 2 stanzas of the ^'Faerie Queene" were, in order, 
10, 5, 7, ID, 10, 5, 7, 6, 8, 9, 5, 7, 6, 6, 6, 6, 7, 5, 6, 6, 4, 4, 4, 5, 4, 4, 4, 5. 6, 5. 4, 
4, 3, 4, 4 minutes. 



48 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

about in the discrimination of length by the eye as a result of 
practice in discriminating length by the knowledge gained from 
arm movements. There were two subjects, S. and D. 

The practice with both subjects was done with the follow- 
ing instrument : Into a narrow upright frame were fixed two 
parallel horizontal steel rods, about two feet long and one and 
one-half inches apart. On the lower rod were two spools fixed 
immovably at 25 cm. apart, and on the upper rod were two 
spools which were freely movable. Subject S., being blind- 
folded, passed the index finger between the fixed spools, without 
touching the rod; and having thus secured the space.image, 
adjusted the upper spools as nearly as he could at an equal dis- 
tance. In half of the cases of each day's practice, the movable 
spools were shifted to a distance greater than the norm ; and in 
half, to a distance less than the norm, preparatory for their ad- 
justment by the subject. After each adjustment, the upper 
spools being held, the lower ones, by means of a slight contri. 
vance, were brought up against the upper ones, so that the sub- 
ject S. could /^^/ how much of an error he had made. The plan 
with subject D. differed only in that he touched the rod in the 
passage between the limits, thus getting both a motor and a 
tactile basis for judgment. 

For the preliminary and final tests for both subjects D. and 
S. the judgments were on the same sort of material, though the 
apparatus was not the same in both cases. A single black strip, 
25 cm. in length was exposed for a definite time; following this, 
another of indefinite length was exposed, and then modified 
until the subject pronounced it equal in length to the norm, 25 
cm. In half the cases the indefinite strip was longer to start 
with than the norm, and half, shorter than the norm. 

In both practice and test series, it is to be noticed that the 
norm was of the same length, the judgment in the former being 
wihout any help from the eye, in the latter with such help. 

The measurements are given in Table i. 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 



?i "^ V 

Tf Tf CO fioo ■* ■* 





• J 3 « N h: 


<: 


>H .ti 


t4H 


^ 


^J 


O 


a 






w 


C/5 




M 






e5 


CJ 




^ 


Cd 




O 


CQ 




u 

< 


Su 
series 
the aid 


eeye 
After 
training 


w 




■M 0) op 









H 

o 
< z S 

^ "4 
Q 












W 2^ 

:j Q ^ 

s a. 






■^ -S J3 



•3 O m C> " Ou^OO "- vO 00 00 O ;3 C" 



<u rt 

Wi3 



N N M 



50 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

These figures represent the average of five different records, 
that is, the actual data consisted of five times as much as is 
represented in the tables. The practice effects in the practice 
series are not very great, though more pronounced in S. than in 
D. One reason for this may be that both subjects were skilled 
experimental psychologists, who as students and teachers had 
drilled themselves into many forms of movement. This is 
further suggested by the curve rising rapidly at first, which prob- 
ably represents their period of getting acquainted with a novel 
form of apparatus. This acquaintance being secured, actual 
physical dexterity grew slightly. Another reason for this low 
degree of increase was the hardness of the test. The fact of be. 
ing blindfolded added confusion by breaking out of the chain an 
ordinary associate in judgments of extension. Then, the prin- 
ciple of judgment with S, was very unusual; viz., deciding a 
length on amount of space passed thfough^ without touching 
anything. It was so wearing on the subject that it could be 
kept up but a few minutes at a time. This weariness was not 
so great with subject D., who used the ordinary means of touch 
in measuring the length. 

Concerning the main issue, the result of the experiment is 
negative. One subject showed improvement in the tests after 
training; the other was, to an equal degree, inferior. 

The third set of data are figures showing the improvement 
after four years' college education in certain mental capacities. 
These figures are derived from the tests made at the Columbia 
University Psychological Laboratory, on students when they 
entered as freshmen, and again on the same students as seniors. 
This material is fully described by Dr. Clark Wissler in "The 
Correlation of Mental and Physical Tests, "(^) Those selected 
for comparison in this study are the tests on (i) perception of 
pitch, (2) perception of letters at different distances with (a) 
right eye, (b) left eye; (3) reaction time; (4) rate of perception 
in marking the letter "A" in a prepared page of mixed letters; 
(5) auditory memory for figures; (6) memory for a simple pas- 
sage; (7) quickness in naming different colors. 

^Psychological Review, Mon, Sup., No. 16, p. 4. 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 51 

In discrimination of pitch there was a slight gain, there 
being 57 cases of improvement, 32 of deterioration, 9 of no 
change, a median gain of i point, which means a reduction of 
the amount of error by about 15 per cent. The details are given 
in Table 2. 

In sharpness of vision, there was no demonstrable change, 
though (counting both eyes' records) there were 137 cases of 
improvement to 78 of deterioration, 71 cases showed no change, 
bringing the median to o gain. The average of the senior 
records is slightly superior. The details are given in Tables 3 
and 4. 

In reaction time there was a slight gain, ^^ of the senior 
records being shorter, 61 longer than the early records, and 2 
being equal. The median gain was .006 sec. or roughly, 4 per 
cent. The details are given in Table 5. 

In the rate of marking A's. on a printed sheet of capital 
letters there was clear improvement of roughly 10 per cent. If 
only those cases are taken where the number of errors in the 
early equals that in the late test, the shortening of time measures 
improvement. The result of the calculation is a median dim- 
inution of time of II seconds. The details are given in Table 6. 

In auditory memory for figures there was no demonstrable 
change, though there were 60 cases of improvement to 38 of 
deterioration, and the average of the senior records was slightly 
better. The median tendency was, however, to no improve- 
ment. The details are given in Table 7, in which the upper 
and lower of each pair of figures represent respectively the fresh, 
man and senior records of one man. 

In memory for a simple passage, there was no improvement. 
Sixteen did better, 15 worse, and 8 the same in senior as in 
freshman year. For details see Table 8. 

In naming colors there was a median gain of 1 1 seconds or 
roughly 15 percent. 22 individuals improved and only 5 got 
worse. For details see Table 9. 

One of the cases in which improvement might be rationally 
expected was that of so-called logical memory, or the memory of 
a simple passage. However, it was there the very least, the 
movement being in the positive direction, but within the zero 



52 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 



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FORMAL DISCIPLINE 53 






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FORMAL DISCIPLINE 



55 



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FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

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FORMAL DISCIPLINE 



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FORMAL DISCIPLINE 



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FORMAL DISCIPLINE 59 

limit. Presumably the increase which the four years of college 
work has given is along some special line or interest. This 
agrees with the tests on this same point on men of science 
carried on January, 1905, Philadelphia, at the last session of 
the American Association of Science, by Mr. F. G. Bruner. 

Men of Science, Logical Memory 3.55 points out of 8. 

College Freshmen, " " 4.45 " " " 8. 

As is seen, these famous men cannot remember the thought 
of the few sentences given in the test better than beginning 
college students. 

The only clear gains in the four years are in the speed of 
the ability to pick out and mark the letter "A" among other 
letters, and to recognize and name a series of different colors. 
Both imply added control of perceptive and motor connections, 
one in the eye-hand complex, and the other in the word area. 
The second test was only in a small degree a test of the quick- 
ness of color discrimination ; the hesitancy was over the name 
for the color. There was such a quickening, however, as was 
referred to above. 

The fourth series of experiments shows the result of special 
practice in discriminating different saturations of blue upon 
other sense powers in the case of sixteen children from the 
Speyer School of Teachers College. They were of average in- 
telligence, and none of them had had any special training in 
color. They were about eleven years old. A Milton-Bradley 
color wheel was used, with a set of the larger and smaller disks. 
Two of the smaller disks, of different colors, e. g., blue and 
white, were adjusted so that there was a fixed per cent of the 
blue and of the white. The outer disks were of the same colors 
but were shiftable, so that the amount of blue could be increased 
or diminished at will. When the disks revolved the inner disk 
presented a blue of one degree of saturation, and the outer disk 
another. The amount of this difference was indicated on a 
scale-disk. The children recorded their judgments with an 
"I" or "O" according as the saturation of the inner disk, or 
outer disk, was greater, or with an "S, " if it was the same for 
both. 

The preliminary and final tests were in discriminating 



6o FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

different mixtures (i) of red and white, (2) of yellow and green, 
(3) of orange and black. There was also, a preliminary test in 
distinguishing differences in pitch. 

Finally these children were tested in discrimination of 
length, in marking A's and in accuracy of movement. 

The practice was continued on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 
2 p.m., for a half hour, through the period from October to 
March, and was done with the blue and white di.sks. In all 
this color work, the method of minimal gradations was employed, 
since it permits a class experiment. The children occupied the 
same relative positions to the color disks through the series and 
as far as possible, the light was maintained the same by use of 
shades. 

The training with the Speyer School children was very 
definite, and gives some very clear results. With the boys, the 
range within which the two tints of red were judged the same, 
was trom 2.3 *^ to 4. 5 "^ at the first test (See Table 10). The 2. 3 ° 
as opposed to the 4.5'^ represent the practice effects that came 
in during these preliminary trials. When these disks are re- 
turned for the final test, the range is from .6 '^ to .9 '^ , (A. D. . 2 
to .4). This difference can hardly be considered to be a contin- 
uation of the rapidly descending first line, for, first it starts in 
much lower (1.9'^), and, second, with the brief experimental 
period at first, it was not likely that the habit should have per- 
sisted through four months of complete inattention to these par- 
ticular colors. Again, the first line is a falling one, the last 
figures not indicating that the level of skill has been reached, 
and that it would fall further may be inferred from what happened 
with the practice curve for blue and white, which likewise 
started in at 4.5 ° and fell to an average level of i. *^. But the 
second line is not a falling line, seeming to be simply the con- 
tinuation of a level line of skill. 

These same statements are perfectly duplicated in the case 
of the girls on the same test (See Table 10); and for the boys, 
with yellow and green (See Table 10). The only variation from 
this in the other two cases — girls with yellow and green (See 
Table 10), and boys with black and orange (See Table 10), is 
that the first curve indicates that practice effects had not ap- 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 



6i 







TABLE 10 












THE 


INFLUENCE 


OF SPECIAL TRAINING 


IN 


SENSE DIS- 






CRIMINATION 
















Tests with red and white 












Boys. 


Before training 


Avs. 


4-5 


4-5 


3 


.0 




3-2 


2-3 






A. D's. 


I.I 


1-5 


I 


.2 




1.0 


0.9 




After training 


Avs. 
A. D's. 


.6 
•4 


■7 
.2 




•9 
•3 








Girls. 


Before training 


Avs. 


3-5 


6.0 


4 


•2 




3-4 


2.4 






A. D's 


I.O 


1-5 


I 


.1 




•9 


•9 




After training 


Avs. 
A. D's. 


.48 
.2 


•75 
•3 




.65 
.2 












Tests with yellow 


and green 










Boys. 


Before training 


Avs. 
A. D's. 


6.7 
1.0 


5-3 
1-5 


4 

I 


.0 

.0 










After training 


Avs. 


2.0 


2.0 


I 


•3 




3-0 








A. D's 


1.0 


1.2 




•5 




.8 




Girls. 


Before training 


Avs. 


5-0 


5.2 


5 


.0 




5-1 








A. D's 


1.8 


1.4 


I 


.2 




I.I 






After training 


Avs. 


2.8 


2.6 


I 


•7 




1-7 


2.1 






A. D's 


•9 


.8 




.6 




•5 


•9 






Tests with black and orange 










Boys. 


Before training 


Avs. 


3-0 


2.8 


3-4 












A. D's. 


•7 


•7 




•5 










After training 


Avs. 


1.2 


1.6 




.8 




•9 


1.0 






A. D's. 


.6 


.6 




2 




•5 


.1 


Girls. 


Before training 


Avs. 
A. D's. 


2.7 
.8 


2.7 

• 5 




■3 










After training 


Avs. 


1.8 


1-3 




•9 




5- 


•5 






A. D's. 


•5 


•7 




•3 




2. 


.2 






Tests with pitch 












Boys. 


Before training 


Avs. 


6.2 


4.0 


4-5 


5 


.1 


6.6 


3-0 






A. D's. 


2.0 


3-0 


2.0 


I 


.8 


3-0 


2.0 




After training 


Avs. 


4.6 


4-3 


2-3 


3 


.0 


3-0 


4.0 






A. D's. 


I.I 


•9 


•9 




.8 


.8 


1-5 


Girls. 


Before training 


Avsi 


5-4 


7.2 


6.0 


6 


4 


3-6 


3-2 






A. D's. 


4.0 


5-0 


4-5 


3-3 


2.7 


0.8 




After training 


Avs. 


4-5 


5-2 


3-2 


3 


.2 


3-4 


5-3 






A. D's 


1.4 


1-3 


0.7 


1 


.0 


I.I 


1.2 




Practice series with blue and white 










Boys. 


Avs. 2.7 


2.6 2.4 2.0 


1.8 


.83 .6 


.87 


1.6 


I 


.25 1.06 


1.2 




1.4 


1.35 .9 .8 


.6 


.7 I.I 


.7 


•7 




.9 .8 




Girls. 


Avs. 4-5 


3.0 2.0 2.3 


1-7 


.9 I.I 


.8 


1.2 




65 -65 






.7 


■ 55 i-i -^4 


•7 


•7 -9 


•7 


•7 




5 -5 






.6 


.6 .4 .7 

















62 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

peared at all in the beginning, thus more completely isolating 
the last curve. With the last curves — with girls with black and 
orange (See Table lo), is the only case where there was a 
noticeable practice effect in the final test. But here as in all 
the others, the lines are clearly separate throughout, and from 
their form do not indicate that one is a continuation of the 
other. 

The average deviations for each case are given and in all 
cases are so low as to indicate the high reliability of the figures, 
and the general uniformity of experience for all the children. 
The practice curves (See Figs. 3 and 4, p. 65) present consider- 
able irregularities, but if it is observed that the ordinate unit is 
i-io*^, these become smaller. During the practice with the 
blue-white series, the relative amounts of each were often 
changed, so that no certain tint could come to stand as a 
standard "same." But such changes in the sorts of blue to be 
judged did not modify noticeably the falling line, or the level 
line of skill. In brief, the ability to discriminate certain tints 
of blue was easily applied to other tints of the same color. 

The indications are that the practice was carried on longer 
than was necessary to reach the skill limit, but the extended 
time threw the test series farther apart, and to that degree 
obviates the criticism to which so many tests on this subject are 
open, namely that the increase in skill was due to the training 
within the test series itself. 

Before the practice with the blue-white series was begun, 
and just after it was closed, a test was made of the range within 
which the children could distinguish the pitch of two tones. 
The Gilbert Tone-tester was employed in the experiment. F sharp 
was taken as the norm, and the method employed, that of 
minimal gradations. As the figures (See Table 10) present it, 
the sharpness went from a range of 4.4 points at the first test — 
each point representing an eighth of the distance from F to F 
sharp, or F sharp to G — to one of 3. 5 at the last test with the boys, 
or a gain of 209^, ; and from 5. 3 points to 4. i points for the girls, or 
a gain of about 2'i,c'/o. One thing can be said : that the improve- 
ment in the discrimination of pitch is not at all com- 
mensurate with that in the color field. It is not, however, tena- 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 63 

ble to explain it as totally clue to the ordinary singing exercises 
of the school that went on within the interim. Furthermore, 
the tones presented such difificulties that there was little practice 
effect, within either one of the series taken separately, so that 
the increase in skill must come from a source outside of tone in- 
fluences. It may be in part due to the actual physiological 
development of the sensorium; but the amount of the difference 
is far too large for the growth of a four months' period. 

The average deviations for both boys and girls are large and 
irregular, especially for the girls, in the first cases; but in the 
last cases, they are small, and much more regular, the A. D. 
of the average deviations for the boys being .2%, and .3% for 
the girls. 

The fifth experiment was conducted in the following 
manner: On a drum which revolved at a given rate, was placed 
a series of parallel lines, which were exposed in succession, 
through a slit in a large card board. The alternate lines were 
the norm, 10 cm. in length ; the intervening ones differed from 
the norm by amounts ranging from one to ten mm. By the 
method of right and wrong cases, the threshold of difference 
was obtained. This was followed by the practice series running 
through two months, four times per week. The same drum 
was used with the comparison lines covered up; then the norms 
only were exposed through the slit. By a mechanism attached 
to a motor, a wide ribbon of paper was made to move continu- 
ously between an upper and lower surface. In the upper was 
a long opening large enough to move a pencil point freely, 
transversely to the direction of the moving paper. The subject, 
then, when the norm appeared in view, endeavored to duplicate 
it, in length, on the slow moving paper, which immediately 
carried his made line out of view. So the skill was largely due 
to practice of the motor sense. The preliminary test was again 
given as the final one. There were two subjects, F. and W. 

In order to give a safe range for judgment, and at the same 
time a sufficient number of judgments for each case, about 700 
judgments were made in the preliminary series, using the 
rpethod of right and wrong cases. When the line was 4 mm. 
longer than the norm, F. got nearly 25% of correct judgments 



64 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

in the preliminary test, and when 4 1-2 mm. long, he obtained 
nearly 25% correct judgments in the final test. 

Of the approximately one thousand judgments made in the 
practice series, the course of improvement may be indicated by 
a comparison of the first fifty with the last fifty. The average 
deviation from the norm of 10 cm., of the first fifty was 9.0 mm. 
and the A. D. of these deviations, 5.0 mm. For the final fifty 
cases, the average deviation from the norm was i.i mm., with 
the A. D. of these deviations 1.5. For subject W. there were 
33 1-3% correct judgments when line was 3 mm. shorter than 
norm, and 25% when 3 mm. longer than norm ; this in first 
test series. In the final series, the judgments were correct 
for 4 mm. longer, in a little more than one-fifth of the cases. 

So, so far as this test is concerned, there was no transfer 
of training effects, from motor practice to visual practice, but 
rather a loss. This may be due to an actual failure to make 
the comparisons more accurate, or to reduce the variability. 
For the first fifty cases, the average of the deviations from the 
norm was 3.4 mm. with an A. D. of 2; whereas, for the final 
fifty the figures were 4 and 2. i. The subject was troubled by 
fluctuations of attention, the tendency to draw by force of habit 
and ignore the norm, and by certain Muller.Lyer illusions in 
length caused by the variation in the relation of the lines as 
each appeared, to the sides of the opening. 

However the test itself is subject to criticism. First, sub- 
ject W. was at the same time acting as a subject in another ex- 
periment which required judgment at sight on length of lines. 
This criticism stands on the question of fact, whether he had 
already reached the limit of his capacity. Subject F. likewise 
was having in his capacity as laboratory director, much training 
in the same field. So again the value of the data turns on the 
same question of physiological limit. 

But more closely connected with the test is the criticism 
that the method of right and wrong cases necessitated so many 
judgments as probably to introduce extensive, if not fatal 
practice effects in the test series. 

The sixth experiment was with business college students. 
It is well known that such students are serious, that their 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 



6S 



increase in skill is very great, that it is measureable, and con- 
tinuous, and that there is little other training obtained during 
the period. So just at entrance, and after three months' drill in 
touch typewriting, and in shorthand, the following tests were 
given, all but No. 3 being done in thirty seconds. In No. i, 
(Fig. 5) the A's were to be marked ; in No. 2, (Fig. 6) the 
maze was to be traced, the distance and number of touches on 
the sides being taken in consideration; in No. 3, (Fig. 7) the 
lines were to be bisected, and one drawn at the bottom of paper 
as long as the one at the top ; in No. 4, (Fig 8) the dots were 
to be marked. 



IT 




Fig. 3 



K 




Fig. 4 



Figs. ^ and 4. The course of practice in discriminating blues. The 
height of the line represents the inaccuracy of discrimination by the in- 
crease in the blue required (in tenths of a degree). The different practice 
periods are recorded from left to right in the time order in which they oc- 
curred. Fig. 3 is for boys; Fig. 4 is for girls. 



66 • FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

OYKFIUDBHTAGDAACDIXAMRPAGQZTAACVAOWLYX 
WABBTHJJANEEFAAMEAACBSVSKALLPHANRNPKAZF 
YRQAQEAXJUDFOIMWZSAUCGVAOABMAYDYAAZJDAL 
JACINEVBGAOFHARPVEJCTOZAPJLEIQWNAHRBUIAS 
SNZMWAAAWHACAXHXOAXTDPUTYGSKGRKVLGKIM 
FUOFAAKYFGTMBLYZIJAAVAUAACXDTVDACJSIUFMO 
TXWAMOEAKHAOPXZWCAIRBRZNSOQAQLMDGUSGB 
AKNAAPLPAAAHYOAEKLNVP'ARJAEHNPWIBAYAQRK 
UPDSHAAQGGHTAMZAOGMTPNURQNXIJEOWYCREJD 
UOLJCCAKSZAUAFERFAWAFZAWXBAAAVHAMBATAD 
KVSTVNAPLILAOXYSJUOVYIVPAAPSDNLKRQAAOJLE 
GAAQYEMPAZNTIBXGAIMRUSAWZAZWXAMXBDXAJZ 
ECNABAHGDVSVFTCLAYKUKCVVAFRWHTQYAFAAAOH 
Fig. 5. Facsimile of Form No. i. 




Fig. 6. Form No. 2 ; one-half actual diameter. 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 



67 



Fig. 7. Form No. 3; one-half actual diameter. 



Fig. 8. Form Ko. 4; actual size. 



68 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

The data are in two groups : The first, group I, is from 
students who were taken separately into a private room, and 
given all the time they needed to complete each of the tests. 
In group II the students were all in one room, and at a prear- 
ranged signal they began to mark the A's in Form I, and con- 
tinued this for thirty seconds, when, the signal again being 
given, they all stopped. In this same way, and in the same 
length of time, they touched the dots, Form 4, and traced the 
maze, Form 2. They were not limited in time in bisecting the 
lines. 

Group I. Here the time which each student took to mark 
all the A's in Form I, at the beginning of a three months' 
period, was recorded, and the differences, that is the losses or 
gains in seconds, determined. The following is a distribution 
of these differences, the minuses indicating the cases in which 
a larger time was used in doing the work, and the pluses, a 
shorter time : 

—30, o, -1-5, -1-8, -|-io, -f-io, -f-i2, -f-20, -I-25, -I-29. The 
median, or middle number, is plus -[-10; that is, there is an 
absolute gain for the whole group of ten seconds. The distribu- 
tion of the time in seconds taken to mark the A's in the first 
test, is 132, 125, 125, 115, no, no, 98, 90, 82, 75, 75. The 
median for the group is no seconds. Letting this stand for the 
time it took the group on the whole at the initial test, then the 
gain of 10 seconds would be 9 i-ii%. 

The A's omitted in this group, where full time was allowed, 
were so few as to be negligible. 

The following are the time records in seconds for each stu- 
dent 'in touching the dots (See Form 4): 137, 126, 125, 122, 
120, 109, 91, 85, 83. The median is 121. If from each of these 
numbers the times taken for the final test, in doing the same 
thing, are subtracted, this is their distribution : —7, —5, — 3, 
— 3> -h^j ~hi3j +24, +27, -f-29, +42. The approximate 
median gain is 9 seconds, or 7 5-12% of the original median 
time in touching the dots. 

In the bisecting of the lines (Form 3) for group I, there are 
two factors — speed and accuracy. The data below show that the 
work was done more quickly, and at the same time there was 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 6g 

less variation in placing the bisecting mark from the true center. 
This first row of figures is the record in seconds for each student 
in the first test: 53, 25, 23, 23, 22, 20, 17, 17, 13, 13, 12. The 
median is 20. From the distribution of the differences for each 
student in the final test; viz. — i, -\-2, -f-4, +5, +5-, +6, +8, 
-\-g, -\-g, +IS> 25. The median gain is seen as 6 seconds, or 
in relation to the 20 seconds, it is 30%. 

There were fifteen of the lines used in the test. By getting 
the difference between the half of each line, as the students 
marked it, and the real half, and dividing the sum of these 
fifteen differences by 15, is obtained the average error for each 
student. These are in mm. : 3.7, 3, 2.3, 2.3, 2, 1.7, 1.6, 1.5, 
1.2, 1. 1, .1. The median variation is thus 1.7. If from each of 
these is taken the amount in mm. which was added to the real 
half-line, on the last test, we have the following distributions of 
differences in the accuracy of the first and final test: — 1.3, 
—.9, --a —I, +-I, +-I, +-I, +-2, +.2, +.3, +1.2. Here 
the median improvement is .1 mm, or about 6%. This means 
that per cent of increase in skill in bisecting the lines. 

The following are the records in seconds for each student in 
tracing the maze. There were only five who did this test 172, 
57, 42, 23, 20. The median is 42. In all cases there was a 
shortening of the time, as the following differences show : -[~3> 
-|-5, -|-9j +i7> +17- The median change, or gain, is 9 seconds 
or 22%. 

For the number of times each student touched the sides of 
the maze in the first test the following are the figures: 58, 52, 
41, 23, 23. Median, 41. Differences between these figures and 
the ones for the final test: — 22, —8, -—1, +1, -{-6. Here 
the minuses indicate loss of skill, that is increase in number of 
touches. The median gain in actual number of touches is i, 
which is about 2%. If the touches increased exactly in the 
same per cent as the distance it could be said that their rate of 
speed only had grown. But it is quite probable that accuracy 
also was greater in the second case, not only because of the 
questionable difference of 2% in number of touches but because 
the number was not much greater, as the greater speed necessi- 
tates greater accuracy to keep from touching the sides. 



;p FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

Group II. As was said, this group was tested as a class, 
the time being common for them all except in the case of bisect- 
ing the lines. The maze (Form 2) is divided into thirty parts, 
all of which can be traced successfully, that is without touching 
the side, in approximately the same length of time. So the 
time factor is eliminated in this test, and the following distribu- 
tion stands for the actual distances on this scale of 30 that each 
student traced at the initial test: 7, 7, 8, 8, 12, 13, 14, 14. 
The approximate median distance for the group then is 10. 
These subtracted from the records for the final test give the 
changes in skill for this act: —3, — i, -f 1.5, +3- 5» +4> +4- 5> 
_!_-. 5^ 4"^4- The median gain then is about 3.7 which is 37% of 
the median accomplishment in the preliminary test. 

The record of the number of times the sides of the maze 
were touched the first time, is: o, i, 4, 8, 12, 13, 31, 43. The 
median number is 10. There was an increase in the number of 
touches for the last series, as the following differences show: 
— 5, +4, +8, +9, 4-1 1, -f 12, +24, +32. Median, 10, or 
100% of the original median amount. This increase is in part 
a necessary correlation of greater distance, and consequently 
their improvement in the test as a whole is left undetermined. 

As to the work of marking the A's by this group, the dis- 
tribution is in terms of the number of A's marked in the thirty 
seconds by each student: 38, 41, 42, 43, 45, 62, 69, ^^, 88. 
Median number is 45. These are the figures for the first test. 
The differences between this record and the final one are:— 34, 
—23, —21, —17, o, -|-9, -[-13, +20, -I-42. Asthe median is o, 
there is no gain or loss, that is, the median for the last series 
was also 45, as well as for the first. 

As to the bisection of the lines (Form 3), the averages of 
the deviations, for each student, of the 15 lines, from the actual 
half, in the first test are as follows: o, 8., i., 1.2, 1.2, 1.7, 1.8, 
1.8, 1.9,4 mm. Median, 1.7 mm. When these same 15 lines 
were divided three months later, the changes were — .5, — .4, 
0, +.4, +.4, +.5, +.9, +1-2, +2.3. Median gain 0.4 mm., or 
23% of the median ability in the first series. 

In Group I, the time of each student in touching the dots 
(Form 4) was employed as a measure of skill. In this case the 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 71 

data refer to number of clots touched by the eight students: 55, 
62, 63, 64, 70, 74, 90, 100. Median, 6"]. The median change in 
gain is 56., as the following distribution of the differences 
between the first and last tests shows : — 30, — 9, o, 4-4, -|-9, 
-|-9, +12, -I-27. This 6. 5 is about 9 2-3% of the median in the 
first test, and so represents that ipuch increase in skill. 

Thus there are gains in every case in motor facility and 
motor accuracy. This is apparently a direct outcome of the 
special training which these students had undergone, in the two 
to four months which had passed between their appearance as 
untrained stenographers, penmen, etc., to the time of the second 
test, when their technical skill had greatly increased. 



Summary 

The main purpose of the first part of this study was to state 
the difficulty, point out the elements involved in it, and indicate 
what the solution would be on logical grounds. The second 
part brought together, in a brief form, the experimental data, 
both direct and indirect, on the question, and the third has added 
a little more evidence of the direct sort. 

From all this, it is admissible to state the following con- 
clusions as being the most tenable at present : 

1. There may be a large application of knowledge secured 
in a limited field. The extent to which this may be valid, 
depends largely on the knowledge or ideal being consciously 
generalized. The limits are in each case personal, and are in- 
dependent of the clearness or adequacy of the information, in 
the particular case. 

2. This knowledge is of any conceptual sort, and so may 
be of method, ways of attack, notions of caution, reflection, 
care, accuracy. 

3. The studies on Cross-Education are unanimous in show- 
ing that the training in skill or power of one side of the body is 
effective in corresponding parts, on the other side. 

4. There is a larger transfer of practice with children or 
youth than with adults. 

5. The extent of the effect is in inverse ratio to the force 
of effect, being strong in processes functionally alike, and 
decreasing as the processes diverge. 

6. The ''Common Element" in any two functions is not 
to be a determined «/n^;/. It may be "ideal, " physiological, 
or objective. 

7. There is some sort of transfer from memorizing one 
class of facts to memorizing another class of facts, and from 
memorizing prose to memorizing poetry. Memorizing poetry 
gives increased ability to memorize figures or names of places. 

8. Training in the discrimination of some colors is highly 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 73 

effective in the discrimination of others, much less so with 
tones. 

9. Negatively, training in one function may have no 
appreciable influence on another, or actually impede the proper 
action and development of another function. 



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FORMAL DISCIPLINE 75 

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76 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

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Vita 

The author was born at Buckhannon, W. Va., October 15, 
1869. He has studied in the public schools of Buckhannon, 
the Northwestern Academy of Clarksburg, W. Va., the Univer- 
sity of Nashville, the University of West Virginia, Leland 
Stanford, Jr., University, the University of Chicago and at 
Teachers College, Columbia University. He has received the 
degree of A. B. from the University of Nashville and the degree 
of A. M. from Leland Stanford University. He has taught in 
elementary and secondary schools and was for six years teacher 
of Psychology and Education at the State Normal School, in 
San Jose, California. 



w 



FORMAL DISCIPLINE 



BY 



CHARLES J. C. BENNETT, A. M. 



SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 

FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

IN THE 

Faculty of Philosophy 
Columbia University 



New York 
1905 






LBAp'09 



